Sara Ikari Rodriguez
The mansion quieted down as midnight approached. The halls felt less grand and more hollow, the echo of voices and laughter from earlier fading into the velvet silence of night.
I couldn’t sleep.
So I wandered. Past the reading room. The back gallery. Eventually, I found myself outside on the terrace, the marble still warm
beneath my feet from the day.
The stars felt closer here. Maybe because it was quieter. Maybe because for once, I wasn’t in survival mode.
I heard footsteps behind me.
“Couldn’t sleep?” Matio asked, hands tucked into his pockets.
I shook my head. “You?”
“Not a chance.”
He came to stand beside me, our shoulders a breath apart. I expected silence, but he spoke after a beat.
“I know about Akika.”
I turned, stunned. “What?”
“Akika Café,” he
