Selena.
Dinner had already begun by the time I noticed the empty chair. Everyone else was seated around the long table, the servants moving quietly as they placed the last dishes in front of us, but Loretta's place remained untouched.
My eyes drifted to the doorway for a moment before I looked back down at the table.
Silas must have noticed it too because he glanced in the same direction before turning back to me with a soft smile that looked perfectly calm.
If Loretta's absence bothered him, he did not show it. Instead he reached for my hand, his thumb brushing gently across my knuckles as though his only concern in the room was me.
Silas sat beside me at the table. His posture was relaxed, one arm resting along the back of my chair in a way that suggested comfortable familiarity.
Anyone watching us would have believed we were a couple who had long grown used to sitting close together.
Across the table the triplets had already taken their seats.
