Alina’s POV
Morning arrived in the softest possible way, the sunlight brushing across the beach house and catching on the edges of the curtains.
I stayed in bed for a few moments longer than usual, listening to the steady rhythm of the waves outside. Leo’s breathing was calm in the next room, steady and even, and for once, the small weight of fear that had accompanied every new dawn for years was absent.
I let myself breathe deeply, tasting the quiet and the slow certainty that, for now, we were safe.
I eventually rose, wrapping a light shawl around my shoulders as I stepped onto the porch. The air was crisp with the lingering salt of the sea, and I let it fill me, grounding me in the present.
I could see Sebastian in the kitchen through the open window, moving with deliberate care a
