LOGIN"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
“You can get dressed. I’ll be right back.” I wiped the gel away and stared at the image in my hands. A raspberry with a heartbeat. I pressed my hand over my mouth. Don’t cry. Dr. Patel came back and handed me a prescription. “Prenatal vitamins—one daily. Small meals for nausea: crackers, toast
Alicia’s POV I stayed in the kitchen long after the sound of Edward’s car faded. The coffee in my cup had gone cold. I hadn’t taken a sip in fifteen minutes. I’d seen it, the way his mouth opened, the pause, the subtle hesitation before he turned away, then the door closing behind him. That soun
“Thank you.” Thank you. Like I’d done him a favor. Like this was a choice. He moved past me toward the stairs and paused at the first step. “Have you eaten?” The question landed wrong. Absurd. As if we were normal. As if concern meant anything this late, this hollow. “Not yet.” “You shoul
The careful way he’d explained it away. Business. Optics. History. I wasn't crazy. He'd been lying the whole time. I don’t know how long I sat there. Could’ve been five minutes. Could’ve been twenty. Eventually, the sobs slowed. Stopped. I wiped my face with my sleeve. It came away soaked. My







