The morning began quietly, deceptively calm. Sunlight filtered through the heavy curtains, casting long shadows across the floor, but the stillness was a lie. The fractures I had set in motion were no longer confined to minor tensions they had begun to cascade unpredictably, and the shadows of Selene’s influence stirred like ghosts across the edges of Julian’s meticulously controlled world.
I felt it immediately: the subtle pressure of observation, the invisible web of control tightening around me. Julian moved through the house with his usual precision, yet the faintest traces of concern lingered in the set of his shoulders, the briefest hesitation in his step. He knew. Always.
And now, the consequences of my actions were beginning to ripple through the lives around me.
The first crisi
