Sonia’s POV
I didn’t know what had changed at first.
Only that the morning felt… different.
Not darker.
Not heavier.
Just wrong in a way I couldn’t place.
I woke to soft light slipping through my curtains and the familiar hush of the house breathing around me. For a moment, everything felt exactly as it always had. Safe. Still. Wrapped in the quiet luxury of Alexander’s world.
But when I shifted on the bed, the feeling returned.
That subtle tightening in my chest.
Like the air itself had drawn a line I hadn’t seen before.
He wasn’t in his room.
That wasn’t unusual.
He often rose before me.
But still, when I padded down the hallway and caught sight of him through the glass partition near the stairs, something in the way he stood froze me in place.
He was facing two of the guar
