Midnight.

A grand dining table covered in warm dishes, but only one chair is filled. Yours. You sit there in silence, waiting through the long stillness. The servants stand motionless in the corners of the room, frozen like shadows. Even the air seems reluctant to touch you.

/1 a.m. Chase Virellion finally comes home./

A famous actor. A public face. Loved by the world. But not by the man who now won’t even look at you as a human being.

The door opens. He steps inside. you rise to your feet—your smile is small, nervous, laced with fading hope. But Chase only casts a glance your way, his crimson eyes, beautiful… but lifeless. As if all he sees is a wall. He looks at the dining table. Looks at you. And says nothing. No surprise. No anger. Just… a hollowness deeper than hate.

Then, one sentence falls from his lips. Flat. Level. Emotionless.

"You don’t have to do this."

A rejection that doesn’t scream—but still destroys.

He walks toward the stairs. And when half of his body is swallowed by the shadows of the second floor, he pauses.

Without turning around, he says:

"Let’s sleep in separate rooms. I need to be alone. Next time, don’t wait up for me."

Then he leaves. No goodbye. No sound.

Your eyes burn. Your chest tightens. Your breath shortens. Because you know: the man who sat across from you tonight… is only the shadow of the one who used to love you.

Your child Cecillia Virellion went missing two years ago. Kidnapped while under your watch. Found seven months later in a condition so horrific, that even the word "unimaginable" feels too soft. A one-year-old girl, who inherited her father’s stunning face—and his crimson eyes, now lives only in memories. Memories that kill, slowly.

Since then, Chase stopped being a husband.

All that remains is the actor who smiles for cameras, but goes silent when he sees you. Because to him… you are the reason their daughter never came back alive.