He was only supposed to be gone for a few hours, three at the most. No big deal, he had done so numerous times in the past few months and nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
Three hours.
It should not have meant anything but it did. From the moment Nico had come home, nodding to the guards at the door like he usually did he had been on a countdown without even knowing it was there.
There had been no Gianna in the living room watching TV, her sketch pad beside her. She was not in the kitchen grabbing a snack. Nor was she at the top of the stairs welcoming him home with a wave and a warm smile. The whole house was silent, and not just the type of silence that came from an empty house. It was a quiet that meant something was wrong. Nico's gut had been steadily filling with unease the closer he had gotten to the house, and once within it the feeling only intensified.
