Chapter 44
~ Franklin ~
The weekend arrived, and the silence of the estate was beginning to feel like a physical weight.
Not the peaceful kind of quiet people romanticized, but the kind that pressed in on you, filled your ears, made every small sound echo louder than it should. The ticking of the clock in the hallway. The faint hum of the air conditioning. Even my own footsteps had started to sound intrusive, like I didn't belong in my own home.
I drove to a city gym, desperate to sweat out the frustration that had been building since Octavia walked out.
The drive itself did little to calm me. Traffic lights took too long, other drivers seemed slower than usual, and every idle second gave my mind space to wander back to her—to the way she had looked at me before leaving. Cold. Distant. Done.
I didn't want the bodyguards; I didn't want the spectacle. I just wanted to be another face in the crowd, anonymous and unburdened.
