The Weight of Silence

✦ Note for New Readers ✦

Hey there! If you’re new to this story — welcome ♡

The first five episodes were written in a chat format, showing Eli’s world in a different way.

To understand the story better, please visit my profile and start from Episode 1.

From here onward (Episode 6 →), the story continues as a novel, with deeper emotions and perspectives.

I hope you enjoy both sides of this Journey. ✦

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ELLIAS POV

The night felt unusually long.

The clock’s ticking echoed through the quiet room, and the pages of my notebook stayed untouched under the dim light of the lamp. I sat there, resting my chin on my hand, staring blankly at the small window. The moonlight spilled across my desk, like it wanted to comfort me — but even the moon felt too far away.

My thoughts drifted back — to the accident, to the first time I met him… Mr. Watson.

He was the only adult who ever saw something in me. I was nine, trembling, covered in bruises, and he stood before me with a kind of warmth I’d never known. Years passed, and that warmth became my reason to keep going — my dream to serve him, to repay him, even if it meant breaking myself piece by piece.

Now, I was living under his grandson’s roof — pretending to be a servant, pretending not to see the cracks between Alex and Julian.

Pretending not to feel guilty for what I was really doing here.

Every day since I arrived, I cleaned rooms that didn’t belong to me, watched lives I could never live. Alex — gentle, distant, calm — he sometimes smiled, just a little. Julian — cold, sharp, and beautiful in the cruelest way — barely looked at me. The air between them was heavy, filled with something unspoken. Two people sharing a home, but never a life.

And I was the quiet observer in their world, a shadow carrying someone else’s purpose.

That morning at college I still played in my mind.

When Mr. Watson called me into his car, I knew what he wanted — and I still said yes. I told him what I’d seen: that they rarely spoke, that they slept in separate rooms. I watched his face harden with disappointment, and I felt something inside my sink.

I did it for my dream, but it felt more like betrayal.

Now, two days later, the guilt was suffocating.

I stopped going to school for a while, spending my time cleaning and studying alone. Maybe if I stayed busy enough, I could drown out the sound of my conscience. But that night, it was too quiet to ignore.

I was at my desk again, pen in hand, pretending to study, when I heard it —

a knock.

Soft at first. Then louder.

My breath caught. No one ever came to my room at this hour.

The air shifted, heavy and uncertain. Slowly, I stood and opened the door.

Julian stood there.

His eyes burned like wildfire — furious, unrestrained. His hair was slightly disheveled, his chest rising and falling as if he’d just walked through a storm.

And for a second, I couldn’t breathe.

The silence between us said everything words couldn’t.

And I knew — this night was not going to end quietly.

To be continued…

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