NIKO.
I couldn’t take it off my mind, my memory replaying every single thing that had happened back on that drive. The moment I saw the look on her face, everything inside me shifted. Alex went still, too still. Her shoulders stiffened, her breath catching like she had just walked into something she hadn’t prepared for. I followed her gaze instinctively, and then I saw it, recognition flickered across her face. It came as a shock first, then I saw even something deeper, something close to fear and a history.
My chest tightened.
This, I thought grimly, is why she wanted to slow things down.
The puzzle pieces slammed together in my head with brutal clarity. Her hesitation. The way she flinched at certain questions. The shadows she never fully explained. I remembered her telling me once,
