Before the silence breaks

Maya's POV

They say that when you spend your entire life in a storm, you learn to forget what the sun feels like. You stop looking at the sky. You learn to accept the cold, the damp, and the endless, heavy gray because fighting against it takes more energy than you have left to give.

For eighteen years, my life was a quiet, suffocating storm. I was a girl defined by what I couldn't do, living in a house where my presence was a burden and my silence was the only safety I owned. I didn't believe in fairy tales. I didn't expect a knight in shining armor to ride in and clear the clouds away.
But I never expected him.

Leo Michaelson wasn't a knight. He was a quiet, impenetrable fortress of a man. He didn't offer soft words of comfort, and he didn't smile to make me feel better. He was strict, unreadable, and commanded the world with an intense, sharp gravity that intimidated everyone who crossed his path. He was a man of few words, a teacher who drew hard lines and demanded respect without ever raising his voice.

Yet, beneath that harsh, unyielding exterior was a shadow that completely enveloped me. A silent shield that took the brunt of every storm the world threw my way.

This is the story of how a man who barely spoke taught me how to find my own voice. And how, before the silence could finally break me, he quietly stepped into my world and refused to let me drown.