Chapter 56 056

Chapter 56 056

Rayna
The moment between us stretched. It didn't snap, neither did it break. I wasn't sure I wanted it to though. It just stretched thin and merciless, like something being pulled too far without permission to give.

The locket lay between us on the table, small and deceptively harmless, its chain curled in on itself like it was bracing for impact. As I stared at it, the only thing I could come up with, was to ask myself how something so small was capable of causing so much damage?

All I'd done was drop off something that belonged to my dead sister, but one would think I'd dropped off a bomb that was just waiting to blow up in our faces.

didn’t move. I didn’t breathe properly either. I just stood there, watching Zero watch it, while waiting for him to make a move.

He didn’t look at me.

Instead, his gaze stayed fixed on the metal, dark and unblinking, as though the thing might disappear if he refused to acknowledge it for long enough. His face was still, and carved into that familiar mask of control, but I’d learned how to read him now. I'd learned where to look, and I saw that his eyes had hardened.

It wasn't with anger this time, not fully, but it shone with something colder, and something deeper.

For a stupid, reckless heartbeat, hope sparked, and I actually thought, God help me, that he might speak.

The thought hit so fast it stole my breath. I was hoping for just one word, a sound. Literally anything. I leaned into it without meaning to, my body betraying me before my mind could catch up.

His hands tightened on his knees. This time it wasn't clenched, it was crushed.

His fingers dug in so hard I could see the tendons stand out beneath his skin, his knuckles bleaching white, like he was holding himself together through sheer force of will. His shoulders went rigid and his breathing slowed to something unnaturally measured, but still he didn't speak.

So, I waited.

Seconds passed, and then more.

The room felt like it had narrowed, like the walls were inching closer, pressing us toward that small, gleaming truth between us. The silence wasn’t empty anymore. This time, it was heavy and loaded, like we had other forces watching.

“Zero,” I said softly, the word slipping out before I could stop it. “Say some. Please.”

I hadn’t meant to say his name, I hadn't meant to construct a full sentence. I hadn’t planned to say anything at all, but there it was, trembling in the air between us, naked and vulnerable and unanswered.

His eyes didn’t lift. Yhey stayed on the locket, and I swallowed hard.

“That was my sister’s,” I added, quieter now. “Lila’s.”

I got nothing, not even a flicker.

My chest tightened then, disappointment sinking in sharp and fast. I’d known better. I knew better, I knew he didn’t speak. That was his rule, his vow, and yet, I’d hoped.

I hated myself for it.

I watched his jaw flex, watched the muscle there tighten and release like he was grinding down something bitter. His grip on his knees didn’t loosen. If anything, it tightened further, like letting go would shatter him.

“You don’t have to explain,” I murmured, even as the words scraped at my throat. “I just needed you to see it.”

Still, he didn’t move.

He stared at the locket like it was a loaded gun, like it was a memory he’d buried so deep he’d convinced himself it no longer existed.

Minutes passed, I don’t know how many, but I knew it was long enough for the hope to wither completely. Long enough for the ache in my chest to turn dull and heavy and humiliating.

Useless.

That was the word that crept in uninvited.

I felt useless standing there, exposed and waiting for something that wasn’t going to come. I’d laid everything on the table, my fear, my sister, my proof, and he had met it with silence.

Again.

My hands curled slowly at my sides.

“Okay,” I whispered, mostly to myself.

I took a step back, then another, the distance between us widening even though he never looked up. The locket remained where it was, untouched, damning and bright under the low light.

He kept staring at it, and saying nothing.

As I turned away, my chest tight and my pulse uneven, one thought lodged itself deep inside me, sharp and unwelcome:

Silence wasn’t denial. It was restraint, and whatever Zero was holding back as he stared at my sister’s locket, it felt bigger than words.

The night didn’t end. The moment didn’t resolve, it just stayed there, unfinished, waiting, watching, just like him.