Sophie’s pov
I didn’t sleep that night.
I lay awake staring at the ceiling — the faint cracks in the paint forming constellations that weren’t really there, but my tired mind kept trying to trace them anyway. Each line looked like memory. Each shadow felt like a question I wasn’t ready to answer.
The city was alive outside my window, its nighttime hum sliding through the glass like a restless tide: cars murmuring down the avenue, music blurring from a rooftop bar two blocks away, someone laughing too loudly in the courtyard. It was the kind of noise that used to irritate me, but tonight it felt like company. Like the world was awake with me.
My mind refused to sit still.
It jumped — back and forth like a film reel stuck on fast-forward.
Adrian’s steady voice…
Lucian’s thunderstorm g
