Love Unspoken

After banging on the door got her nowhere, Quinn slumped to the floor, exhausted.

She was in a small, cluttered space, pitch dark. The silence was so intense it felt like even the air had stopped moving.

The darkness wrapped around her, making it hard to breathe.

Squatting on the cold ground, she hugged her knees. In the room, the only sounds were her own breathing and her heartbeat.

Alexander had asked her to reflect, but she was at a loss as to what. Was it the five solitary hours she had spent waiting in the restaurant or the fact that she had seen Juliet home? She didn't know what she had done wrong. Quinn fumbled in her pocket and withdrew her phone. It was dead now, unresponsive. Curled up behind the door, she closed her eyes and covered her ears, pretending she was just in her bedroom, and it had simply gone dark.

She was reminded of a time when Freya had also locked her in a storage room like this for an entire day and night. Occasionally, mice and insects would scuttle over her, invoking paralyzing terror in the six-year-old Quinn. The saddest part was that she couldn't even scream out her fear. She could only scrape desperately at the door, scratching until her fingers bled. Yet still, no one came to her rescue.

opened that door, leading her out into the light. It was the first time he held her a memory that never faded, the warmth of his embrace still vivid. She could still recall

her back into the depths, returning her to

of the young man, once vivid in her mind, began to fracture. As Quinn recalled

desperation, she tugged at her collar, struggling for air as her heart

efforts diminished to a mere shuffle. Meanwhile, Alexander had already departed, unaware of the desperate

room.

way to the office, when Abigail called unexpectedly, he merely glanced at the

Abigail's brows furrowed. Deep down,

silence. Hobart, the butler, hastened upstairs, arriving at the

my brother? Call him. I need to speak with