EMILI
I woke with his arm around my waist and his slow, warm breathing against the back of my neck. For one instant—just one—everything was perfect. His warmth wrapping around me, the sandalwood scent of his sheets, the solid weight of his chest against my back. As if the world were a safe place and I had the right to exist in it.
Then the fear arrived. Right on time.
It settled in my chest with the familiarity of a tenant who never pays rent but never leaves either. It reminded me that the last time I felt this calm was the morning before Ricardo threw me off a cliff. It reminded me that happiness and I had an unspoken agreement: it showed up, I let my guard down, and then something terrible happened.
I tried to get up slowly, slipping out of his embrace inch by inch.
His arm tighten
