As she had come to expect, Sebastian didn’t return that night. The once warm and lively bed felt unbearably cold, and she fell asleep with tears staining her pillow.
The next morning, Abigail sat at the dining table, eating breakfast in the silence that had become her new normal. The sound of the villa door opening startled her, and she looked up to see Sebastian entering.
Her heart stirred involuntarily, and she rose to greet him, the name slipping from her lips out of habit. “Sebastian...”
He didn’t even glance her way. His voice was ice when he said, “I told you not to call me that.”
Without waiting for a response, he strode upstairs, his back turned to her.
Abigail stood frozen in place, staring blankly at him as he disappeared. Habits weren’t so easy to change. For almost four years, she had called him that, and he had always corrected her whenever she used his full name, insisting it made them sound too distant.
But now...
A few minutes later, he came back down, dressed in fresh clothes.
“Sebastian, where are you going?” she asked, this time remembering his demand.