Her first glimpse of his real world
That night, Emilia never slept. Not even for a second.
She stayed curled in the oversized chair by the window, her thin blanket slipping to the floor sometime after midnight, unnoticed. Her knees were drawn tightly to her chest as though she could make herself small enough to disappear—small enough that none of this would be real anymore. On the table beside her, the unopened ring box sat like an accusation. A threat. A promise she never asked for.
Its velvet surface caught the golden glow from the city below, the faint light pooling through the glass and reflecting off the metal edges. Through its barely parted lid, she could see the faint glint of the ring inside. She stared at it until the edges blurred. Until her heart stuttered painfully.
It wa
