Elena's POV
The day my book was published, the world felt louder than I’d ever known it to be, and I couldn’t even see most of it.
The morning light filtered gently through the curtains as I ran my fingers over the hardbound copy resting in my lap. My name was embossed across the front. My truth was inside it, and people, millions, were going to read it.
I’d written about survival, about assault, about waking up in a blurry world and refusing to let the dark win and now it was out there, and there was no taking it back.
I sat at the kitchen island, my palms wrapped around a warm mug, though the tea had long gone cold. Adrian was somewhere in the living room, on a call with a publicist or a journalist, maybe both. The hum of his voice was soft, clipped, confident.
He’d barely slept the
