The days after the knock blurred together in a way that felt both slow and rushed, like time couldn’t decide what to do with itself.
Mira didn’t leave the apartment for two days.
Not because Eli asked her not to, and not because she was frozen in fear—but because she needed to exist somewhere without being watched. The walls of the apartment had become a fragile sanctuary. Temporary, yes, but real.
Eli adjusted his schedule without mentioning it. He worked from home. Took phone calls quietly in the bedroom. Cooked simple meals and left them on the counter when Mira didn’t feel like sitting at the table.
There was no pressure.
And that, more than anything, unsettled her.
She wasn’t used to kindness that didn’t come with conditions.
On the third morning, she woke early and found him i
