The car rolled smoothly through the city streets, the soft hum of the engine blending with the muffled sounds of the world outside. It was rhythmic, almost hypnotic, but my thoughts refused to settle. Instead, they churned restlessly, each one more tangled than the last.
I sat quietly beside Rafael, my hands resting lightly in my lap, my gaze fixed on the blur of lights outside the tinted window. The city looked different at night, like it had secrets of its own, but tonight, it wasn’t just the city that felt different. It was the air itself, thick with an unspoken tension, as though something unseen was about to shift.
Rafael sat next to me, his broad shoulders relaxed yet commanding, his face unreadable behind those ever-present dark sunglasses. It didn’t matter that the sun had long
