The Unbearable Emptiness

NOLAN'S POV

I woke up before dawn, but for the first time in my life, I didn’t feel like getting out of bed. The room felt impossibly large and unbearably quiet, the silence pressing down on me like a thousand tons of steel. My pillow was still damp from tears I didn’t remember shedding, and my chest felt hollow, as though something vital had been ripped away from inside me.

I turned my head to th