Chapter Thirty-Four: The Shape of Him in the Silence
Lena's POV
I woke to silence.
Not absence.
Just… silence.
The kind that feels like a room waiting to be entered.
The kind that doesn’t press, or threaten, or remind you of what’s missing.
It just is.
And this time, it felt good.
Familiar.
Like slipping into a version of myself I hadn’t had the space to remember.
No knock at the door.
No folded note on the counter.
No Nikolai.
And I knew—he’d stayed away.
He’d listened.
And something deep in my chest—something not yet named—stirred.
Not relief.
Not regret.
But recognition.
This was the first time I’d asked for space and been given it without conditions.
And it felt terrifying.
And safe.
All at once.
**
I stayed in bed longer than usual.
Tea went cold on the night
