Alessia’s POV
I woke up the next morning and felt different.
Not dramatically different. Not the kind of different that came with a revelation or a single clear moment of decision. Just quieter. Like something that had been humming loudly in the background of everything for weeks had been turned down slightly, enough to finally hear myself think.
Kate’s words had done that.
‘Stop making him the center of a story he keeps refusing to be in.’
I lay there for a few minutes in the early morning quiet and looked at the ceiling and let it settle. Then I got up, made coffee, got dressed, and went to work.
*****
I handed Sebastian his coffee at the elevator at nine on the dot.
He took it and looked at me the way he always did first thing, that quiet assessing look, and I met his eyes and s
