เข้าสู่ระบบ"I don't want to go back to what we were," she said. "I'd burn it down before I let that happen." Her chin lifted slightly. "So whatever this is," she said, "it has to be something we've never been." "From the ground up." The air between us had changed. Nothing had moved to change it. My finge
Edward's POV A flight of stairs. Elena's door was ajar when I reached the landing. I pushed it open and stepped inside. She was at the window. Coat still on. I shrugged mine off and set it on the chair by the door. The click of the latch made her shoulders tighten once before they released. "Y
Thursday. The registry doors opened before I fully reached them, air still adjusting around the gap, carrying paper dust and ink heat and the low sound of decisions being processed without ceremony, none of it pausing for me. My name came almost immediately. Not because I was expected—because the
Alicia's POV Apartment light warmed the room before I crossed the threshold. Elena stood at the counter, spoon tracing slow circles through a pot resting on low heat. Steam rose in thin strands, breaking apart under the ceiling light before it could gather into anything defined. My shoes paused b
Edward's POV I didn’t remember walking into the estate. I remembered the gate. Then nothing clean after that—just fragments of motion stitched together without pause. Headlights fading into the drive. The slow roll of tires over stone. The way the house lights adjusted as if it had already antic
The car didn’t stop at the main entrance. It passed the glass frontage of the building, continued past the visible entry point, and turned into the service approach that only functioned as an entrance once the guard stepped aside. No signage. No announcement. Just controlled access. I didn’t que
Behind me, Vivienne's voice. "Edward. Inside. Now." I turned. Walked back. Lucy was in the foyer, mascara streaking down her face. "Edward, I'm so sorry. I never meant for any of this—" I walked past her like she didn't exist. Vivienne followed me. "I'm calling the guests right now. I'll tell th
"I'm making you food," she said, standing. "Real food. Not whatever they serve in that prison." "I'm not hungry." "Don't care. You're eating." She disappeared into the kitchen. Cabinets opened. A pan hit the stove. The sounds of someone who knew exactly what needed doing. I sank into the couch,
Alicia’s POV The apartment was quiet. Not the comforting quiet that let you sink into stillness, but the kind that pressed against your temples and reminded you of everything you hadn’t done, everything you’d lost. Elena had already left for work. The sound of her heels fading down the stairwell wa
Alicia's POV I woke to a sound I couldn’t place at first—shapes of voices drifting upward, blurred by distance and the layout of the house. Not words. Not tones I could clearly identify. Just the low hum of conversation traveling through the open staircase, the kind that shouldn’t have existed this







