ALDRIC
The estate breathed differently when empty.
I'd given the Omegas the afternoon and night off. I even sent the sentinels to patrol the outer perimeter. The guards could stand at the gates for all I cared. I wanted the house to myself. I wanted the silence that came with solitude.
No footsteps in distant hallways.
No murmured conversations bleeding through walls.
Here and now, it had to be just me and the vast emptiness of the estate.
Elara's absence made it better. The girl had been a constant buzz of need and questions. Daddy this, Daddy that. I loved her in the way one loves a prized possession, but her presence demanded energy I didn't always want to expend. With her gone, the house settled into something peaceful.
Something truly mine.
