Chapter 9: The Morning After
I woke up to silence.
Not the absence of sound, the particular kind. The weighted, settled hush of a space that isn’t yours.
The sheets were wrong. Too smooth, too expensive, and underneath the cold luxury of them, something else. Cedar first, then something warmer that I couldn’t catch before it slipped away. The light coming through the curtains was that noncommittal early-morning gold, the kind that hasn’t decided what it wants to be yet.
It took me four full seconds to remember where I was.
Sebastian’s house. My house now, technically, under the terms of a contract I’d signed six days ago in a lawyer’s office while my hands were steadier than they had any right to be. The Atherton property, twelve rooms, a garden that required its own staff, and a kitc
