The winter at Lyndhurst was a season of profound, cocoon-like peace. Nora’s pregnancy progressed with a serene, blooming vitality that seemed to infuse the very stones of the estate with hope. Demetri was a transformed man. The grim intensity that had once been reserved for boardroom battles was now directed towards assembling cribs, reading parenting books with a furrowed brow, and practicing swaddling techniques on a long-suffering teddy bear. He was meticulously, joyfully preparing.
Sasha, dividing her time between Paris and home, poured her creative energy into the nursery, painting a breathtaking mural on the wall—a whimsical, dreamlike landscape that blended the rolling hills of Lyndhurst with the volcanic shores of Iceland and the rooftops of Paris. It was a map of their family’s h
