Page 193 of Dream On, Liar

Then I closed my eyes and let the plane carry me home.

31

ONE WEEK LATER

Rihaan

UNLOCKING THE FRONT DOOR of the townhouse, something in me had already gone quiet in a way I didn’t like.

Not calm.

Not settled.

Just…shut off.

I pushed the key into the lock harder than necessary and let myself in.

Milo was the first to acknowledge I existed, as I dumped my bag on the floor and removed my shoes.

He appeared from the hallway like he owned the place—which, to be fair, he did now more than ever—tail high, eyes unimpressed, pausing just long enough to judge me before brushing against my leg.

Something in my chest loosened slightly.

“Missed me?” He didn’t even blink. “Thought so.”

I crouched anyway, scratching behind his ears.

He tolerated it.

Barely.

Then he walked off like I was a mildly inconvenient piece of furniture.

I exhaled through my nose, straightened, and dropped my keys into the bowl.

The house was too still.

Too clean.

Too normal.

Then I heard the clicking of keyboard from the living space.

Raina.

A strange relief flickered through me before I could stop it as I walked in to the open space.

She was curled into the corner of the sofa, laptop balanced on her legs, hair tied back, face lit in that soft glow that made her look more tired than she probably was.

For a second, I just watched her. Happy to see my sister. There had been a time that sentence would’ve felt fiction more than reality.

Something in my chest tightened without permission.

She looked up, and her entire expression changed.

Not fear.

Not worry.