How do you interpret silence?

Have you ever been in a place where someone you care about deeply refuses to communicate with you? The silence draws out for days and then weeks and months, and you don’t hear from them. You know they are silent because of something between you, not because they are hiding. But you don’t know what it is between you caused the rift.

What was the story? Who were you estranged from? What kind of relationship did you have? How did you interpret the silence? Did you ever find out the true reason for the rift between you? Or a convincing reason? Or even an attempted reason? Did you believe it? What was it?