Lelia POV
It had been three days since the move. Three long, oddly quiet days.
I hadn’t seen Kevin. Not once.
Not at meals. Not during staff rotations. Not even in passing through the upper halls. But I caught his scent sometimes—that blend of coconut and lemons, curling faintly through the stairwells or woven into the fibers of a chair I passed too close to. It made something flutter and then clench inside me.
He was here. Just… elsewhere.
And maybe that was a good thing.
Lia didn’t agree. She kept lifting her head every time the scent grew stronger, tail flicking, ears pricked. But she didn’t push. Not yet.
Marie’s knock came just after breakfast, sharp and rhythmic. “Put on something cute! We’re going into town.”
I blinked at my reflection in the small mirror above my dresser.
