Fear did not arrive loudly this time.
It crept in quietly, settling into Mira’s chest like something that belonged there.
The morning after she saw him across the street, Mira woke with a dull ache behind her eyes and a heaviness in her limbs that sleep had not touched. The city outside the window moved on as usual—cars passing, voices rising and falling—but inside her, everything felt suspended, as though she were standing on the edge of something she couldn’t yet see.
Eli was already awake, moving softly around the apartment. He watched her carefully, as if she were made of glass.
“You don’t have to go to work today,” he said gently.
She shook her head. “I do.”
“After yesterday—”
“After yesterday, I need normal,” she interrupted quietly. “I can’t let him decide my life again.”
El
