Chapter Fifteen: The Choice to Be Seen
Lena stood in front of the mirror, back bare, hair pinned into an effortless twist that took forty silent minutes and three discarded styles. The black gown hugged her body like a second skin, silk flowing behind her in a whisper. It was daring—but not desperate. A quiet declaration, not a scream.
Nikolai watched her from the doorway, leaning against the frame with a calm that wasn’t real.
His eyes said everything he didn’t.
That he wasn’t used to her leaving his side, even when he was the one who’d asked her to.
That he knew tonight wasn’t about art or spectacle.
It was about Lena deciding to be seen again—this time not through his lens, but through her own.
He said nothing as she turned.
But when she met his gaze, she caught the flicker of a
