Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31: AFTER THE FIRE The morning after victory felt unfamiliar. For weeks, Lena had lived inside urgency, every call a potential disaster, every meeting another battlefield, every silence suspicious. Now, as sunlight poured softly through the tall windows of her apartment, there was no emergency waiting for her before she opened her eyes. The quiet felt almost unnatural. She stood in the kitchen with a cup of coffee warming her hands, staring out at the city below. It was the same skyline she had watched through nights of strategy and sleepless tension, but now it looked different. Less like a battlefield. More like possibility. Behind her, Elias entered with the same quiet presence he always carried, but even he seemed lighter somehow. He leaned against the counter, watching her
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