Kindness was never safe in a war built on silence and suspicion.
——
Lily’s POV
My first day at the café was…quiet. Uneventful, if you looked at it from the outside. But I could still feel the storm trailing behind me. The echo of the events off last night coupled to this morning’s confrontation clung to my skin like cold air.
I buried myself in work—hands busy, thoughts caged.
Gina, though, was a firecracker. Wild colors in her hair and wilder stories to match. I liked her. We were opposites—her boldness, my restraint—but maybe that's why the silence between us never felt awkward.
She never asked about my family, and I never asked about hers. We hovered at the edge of something that might become friendship, or at least a quiet alliance. That was enough for now.
By the time the la
