Patricia's POV...
If I said I slept, I'd be lying. The night wasn't a passage of time but a single, drawn-out moment of exquisite vulnerability.
I have never felt so unprotected in my entire life. The mansion, my fortress for over a decade, had turned against me. Its vastness was no longer a symbol of power but a yawning chasm of silence.
Every floorboard that settled was a footstep. Every rustle of the ancient oak trees outside was an intruder at the window. The wind didn't whisper; it hissed threats against the panes of glass, each one a potential entry point. I was a queen in a castle that had become a cage, its every shadow a threat.
Robert was gone.
