Amelia barely slept.
Her apartment felt the same—same cracked corner of the ceiling, same faint scent of Maya’s vanilla candles, same hum of the city drifting in through the windows—but she was different. Every shadow seemed sharper. Every sound lingered a second too long.
And beneath it all… that feeling.
That invisible thread that pulled, tightened, and refused to loosen no matter how hard she tried to ignore it.
She sat at the edge of her bed just as dawn broke, her phone clutched loosely in her hand. She hadn’t messaged Ethan. Not after the way he’d looked at her the night before—like leaving her here had gone against every instinct he possessed.
She told herself she’d done the right thing.
She needed her life. Her normalcy. Maya. Her job. She couldn’t disappear into his world co
