The mansion was too quiet the next morning.
Not the efficient quiet of disciplined staff and padded footsteps.
Not the distant hum of the city beyond glass and steel.
This was heavier.
As if something unspoken had settled into the walls overnight.
She woke before him.
For a moment, she simply lay there, staring at the faint gray light filtering through the curtains. The space between them was carefully preserved again—no accidental closeness, no blurred lines.
But the air was different.
Charged.
Last night had not been subtle.
He had pulled her into his arms.
He had admitted he didn’t trust himself.
And she had seen it clearly—the war wasn’t between them.
It was between who they were… and who they had become.
She slipped out of bed quietly and moved toward the window.
The ci
