Chapter 13: Olivia's Empty Apartment

The key clicked hollowly in the lock and echoed down the empty hallway. Olivia pushed open her apartment door; what had once been a familiar creak of hinges was now suddenly shocking and unwelcome. Stepping inside, she was muffled on the plush carpet by the closed door behind her with a soft thud. The silence deafened her. For a moment, Olivia stood at the entrance, her hand still on the doorknob. This place, which she had called home for years and filled with her art and memories, now seemed that of a stranger: cold and unwelcoming. She sighed and willed her legs past the point of the home. The living room was bathed in soft afternoon light seeping through gauzy curtains. Right away, Olivia's gaze moved to empty spaces, gaps Nathan's presence once filled. That part of the bookshelf, always at a turn, where his dog-eared copy of "The Great Gatsby" was always to be found now gapes there like a missing tooth. The litter of his magazines and her art journals on the coffee table, now ba