Chapter Sixteen: A Love That Doesn’t Beg
The villa was too quiet after the gala.
Not the kind of quiet that calms.
The kind that questions.
Lena woke with the sound of birdsong in her ears and the memory of the ballroom still pressing behind her ribs. She turned onto her side. The sheets were cool beside her. Nikolai’s space was empty, but the imprint of him remained—creased linen, the faint scent of cedar and turpentine.
She sat up slowly, the silk robe slipping from her shoulder as light spilled through the windows. Outside, the ocean stretched endless and gold, the sky lavender at the edges.
She felt... hollow and full at once.
Last night had been a turning point.
But turning points didn’t always come with clarity.
Sometimes they came with weight.
A new kind of exposure. Not t
