Chapter 198: Lillian Feels Watched

Lillian became aware of it the way one notices a change in air pressure. Not sudden. Not alarming. Just present.

She felt it first in the mornings.

Not in Nathaniel’s gaze. His attention had always been deliberate, contained, respectful of boundaries he enforced on himself more than on her. This was different. This was diffuse. Ambient. As if the world had leaned closer without touching.

Bloom House Floral remained unchanged on the surface. The same bell. The same light slanting across the stone floor at eight twenty. The same delivery men who greeted her with familiarity that required no words. Yet she sensed pauses that lingered a fraction too long.

A passerby slowed near the window and did not look at the flowers.

A woman across