EMMA
I didn’t sleep.
Not really.
I lay on the narrow bed in the guest cabin with my coat still on, boots by the door, suitcase half-zipped like I might need to run at any second. Every sound made my pulse spike—the wind against the windows, the distant creak of the estate settling, the low hum of generators I hadn’t noticed before. Everything felt charged now. Alive in a way that no longer comforted me.
Knowing changes things.
Once you know, you can’t unknow.
Clara’s words replayed over and over until they lost their shape and became a bruise inside my skull.
I rose before dawn, when the world was still blue and quiet, and the snow outside looked deceptively soft. I showered quickly, as if the water could wash the night off me. As if it could rinse away the image of Gabriel’s eyes w
