The Party

LILITH POV Saturday afternoon arrived without much fanfare. I was standing by one of the large square windows when Isabella called again, her voice bright and insistent, already busy with movement and noise. “It’s starting at four,” she informed me. “I’ll pick you up.” “Okay,” I replied, and the line went dead before I could say anything else. I started to lower the phone, looking around the house. Only then did I really begin to notice my environment…the vivid absence of someone. No footsteps in the hall. No clipped hostile instructions mixed with Italian were carried through the doors. No tension humming under the silence. No waiting for the bedroom door to open. Indeed Lucian wasn’t at home. The house felt hollow in a different way. Not watched. Just… quiet with a finality. Something in me shifted gradually, like a muscle freeing itself after decades of being held tight. I smiled at myself, and then my mind began to wander, where it had been circling all wee