Chapter 98 Eyes That Shouldn't Linger: Part One

• Three days since I’ve been home, and Efrem has barely left his office. The house still feels different. Larger somehow, emptier, despite the increased security that loom the grounds but never enter our home.
• Maybe I should just be grateful I’m here at all.
• I’m curled in my usual spot on the sofa in the parlor, a book open but unread in my lap. The words blur together, meaningless against the constant replay of gunfire and fear in my mind. Even here, in broad daylight, surrounded by pristine evidence of my survival, I can’t shake the feeling that everything could shatter again at any moment.