Page 104 of Symphony for Lies

I slid down to the floor, knees pulled tight to my chest.

Everything felt heavy.

My mind was a tangled mess of questions, doubts, and fear. The more I tried to understand what happened, the worse it got.

A soft knock at my door made me flinch, and my grandmother’s gentle voice drifted through the wood. “Amelia, you need to eat a little, my sweetheart.”

There was concern in her tone.

Clenching my hands into fists, I forced my voice to be steady as I said, “I’ll be right down. I just need to shower first.”

“…Okay, my dear, I’ll wait for you.”

Her footsteps faded away. And only then did I allow myself to exhale.

I pushed everything down and locked the panic away.I had to function. I had to pretend. But when night fell, Zane still hadn’t called.

Chapter 23

One day passed.

Then two.

By the third day, Zane hadn’t contacted me at all.

I called, texted, and waited for him to show up unannounced like always. But nothing.

It felt like he had been a fever dream—too intense and raw to be real. Like he had never been there at all. Yet the ache in my chest told me otherwise. Something was wrong.

The city moved on as if nothing had ever happened.

No more poisonings.

No more murders.

The news barely mentioned the case because they had a suspect. People went back to their everyday lives.

But somehow, I couldn’t.

That evening, I forced myself to function.

I had tutoring with Simon, and I really tried to push everything aside and focus.

He was calm and polite, just like always.

And for a short while, it helped. Numbers made sense. Numbers were logical. But when the session was coming to an end, Simon put the pencil down and looked at me with big, uncertain eyes.

“Amelia, do you know where my brother is?”

My heart stopped.

“What do you mean?” My voice sounded thin and way too fragile.

Simon fidgeted with the hem of his shirt.“He always texts me. Just once a day, but he never forgets. But he hasn’t sent anything lately.”

A cold wave swept through me.

“We went to his house yesterday. He wasn’t there, either. Mom says he’s probably just rebelling again. But I don’t believe her… I’m scared.”