Lena's POV
Three days passed without significance.
Or rather — three days passed with nothing dramatic occurred, which inside this house amounted to approximately the same thing. No visits from Victor, no calls that changed Damian's face, no flowers on windowsills. Just the ordinary texture of life within the estate, which I was learning had its own rhythms and its own quiet language.
I read. I walked the gardens in the mornings before the day got properly underway. I ate meals that Mara made with the quiet dedication of someone who understood that feeding people well was its own form of care.
I thought about what Damian had said in the car.
I thought about it more than I intended to and less productively than I hoped. It moved through my mind at inconvenient moments — while I was rea
