Chapter 419: Loud Si

Chapter 419: Loud Silence

When Athena came back into the sitting room, the stillness hit her harder than the cool night air she’d just left behind. The lamps threw a soft glow across the walls, yet the room felt dim, muffled, as if it had been holding its breath since she’d stepped outside.

Antonio’s words still clung to her ears, sharp as glass: It’s not a relationship then. She tried to shake them off, but her chest was still tight. He had been unhinged in a way she had never seen before, and she couldn’t help circling back to the question: was Ewan really enough reason for Antonio to unravel like that? To lose the restraint he always wore like a suit?

Or was this picture the real Antonio? In those few years they had spent staying together on most occasions, did she really see him, know him?

Her hand twitched against her side, and she straightened her shoulders. She couldn’t let her family see it—the turmoil, the sting of what had just happened. She had to be stone, at least in here. Still, she knew her absence had been too long. Their eyes would follow her, their questions unspoken but heavy in the air.

She crossed the room with deliberate calm, her face smoothed into neutrality, though inside, her pulse still stumbled.

Ewan sat on the couch, a stubborn set to his jaw, his thigh wrapped in a bandage already darkening with fresh blood. The sight of it made her throat close.

She lowered herself beside him, close enough that their knees almost touched. "Is he alive?" Her voice came out quieter than she meant, nearly fragile. "Zane?"

Ewan’s eyes met hers, steady. "Alive," he said simply.

Relief swept through her, though it didn’t erase the unease curling in her stomach. Alive wasn’t safe. Alive wasn’t whole. Did he lose any body part?

Her gaze dropped to his thigh, the crude binding, the sluggish seep of red. She didn’t touch, but her fingers hovered like they wanted to. "Tell me everything," she said, the softness gone now, replaced with steel.

Ewan studied her for a moment, then exhaled, slow, resigned. And he told her.

By the time he finished, Athena was sitting stiffly back in her seat, her hands clamped together so tightly her knuckles burned. The silence stretched again, filled with the weight of what he had just given her.

"The hospital. The

bringing him in. If his father catches wind..." He trailed off, shaking his


together, fighting the unease twisting her gut.

she asked, lifting her chin. "Hasn’t he asked about his

Zane’s crashing with me

and she gave a small, incredulous smile.

the only

no joy in it. "What happens

improvise again," Ewan said. His eyes

down to

tilted his

Her tone was sharp, betraying the worry she

worse than it

stare, calm, steady.

Instead, she turned toward Aiden, who had


carefully. "How does he feel about our tips

in a shrug, though his mouth

watching him closely. "How did it

was when she saw it, again—the flicker in his eyes, the tension in his jaw. Something

when she had met him on the porch. The worry. She realised now that it was more for his

wasn’t meeting her

rough."It went badly," he admitted, voice thick with frustration. "We didn’t catch them. The doctors—they slipped through our fingers. All we managed was scattering the lab and tipping them off. They’ll be on guard now, harder to

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