The Paris Send-Off

~VALERIE POV~

The house had never felt so full and yet so quiet at the same time. It was almost unsettling how peace could hum beneath noise, how even laughter carried a trace of ache once you started counting days. My suitcase sat by the closet, still open, half-packed, like it was waiting for me to change my mind.

I had told Donovan a hundred times that it would only be two months.…eight short w