Brielle’s POV
The world had quieted.
For the first time in what felt like a lifetime, I wasn't constantly waiting for the next blow, the next betrayal, the next terrible truth to unravel me.
Instead, I was still.
And stillness felt like a victory.
Adrian and I had fallen into a rhythm that was unhurried and warm. There was no longer an undercurrent of tension between us, no shadow of suspicion. We had earned each other—through fire, through grief, through revelation. And now, as the sun spilled through our apartment windows and painted golden shapes on the floor, I could feel the simple, quiet joy of being loved.
I didn’t know what day it was when Adrian started acting strange. But I noticed it in the way he kept checking his phone. In how he avoided my gaze sometimes, like he was hi
