I stood at the edge of everything we had fought for, looking at the wreckage of a plan I thought we had finally conquered. The feeling in my chest was strange—something between relief and terror, like standing on the edge of a cliff, unsure if I should leap or step back.
Robert had taken everything. Our data, our research, our hard work—everything that we had built together. And for a moment, it felt like the walls were closing in. All the sacrifices, all the late nights, the endless struggles to make something real, only to be undone by one ruthless move.
“Leila.”
I looked up, startled by the sound of Alexander’s voice, his calm presence cutting through the chaos in my mind. He was standing there, his gaze steady, unwavering, like always. But today, his eyes seemed to carry the weight of something more—a weight I hadn’t seen before. And yet, in that weight, I found strength.
“We’ve been through worse,” he said quietly, his voice filled with a raw confidence that wrapped around me lik
