I couldn’t sleep.
I lay there with my eyes closed, listening to the house breathe.The distant footsteps of guards changing shifts. The sound of Lucien’s door opening and closing sometime after midnight.
I didn’t move when he came in.
I felt the mattress dip slightly. His weight. Familiar. Heavy.
He didn’t touch me.
That was worse.
My stomach twisted again. Not sharp. Not violent. Just wrong. Like my body was holding its breath.
When morning came, it didn’t feel like relief.
Lucien was already dressed. Suit pressed. Cufflinks fastened. Hair perfect. He looked like a man walking into a board meeting, not someone about to tear open a secret.
“Get up,” he said without looking at me.
I sat there. “Lucien…”
“Now.”
His voice wasn’t raised. It didn’t need to be.
I slid out of bed. Th
