LOGINLila's P.O.VI woke up like I had been dragged out of something that didn’t want to let me go.My chest burned. My breath came out in sharp, uneven bursts, like I had been running without knowing it. For a moment, I couldn’t tell where I was. The darkness in the room felt too thick, too close, like it hadn’t fully released me from whatever I had just seen.The cliff.The missing figure.The voice.And then—That presence behind me.I sat up abruptly, my hand pressing against my chest as if I could steady the frantic rhythm of my heart by force. My eyes darted across the room, trying to make sense of shadows that suddenly felt alive.Nothing moved.Nothing answered.But the feeling lingered.That I wasn’t alone.“Lila?”His voice came from beside me.Low, groggy, real.Lucian.I turned sharply, almost startled by the sound of him, as though I had forgotten he was even there.He was already sitting up, his expression shifting quickly from sleep to concern as he looked at me.“You’re sha
Lila’s P.O.VI didn’t realize how tightly I was holding the paper until my fingers began to ache.Lucian hadn’t moved.Neither had I.The air between us had shifted into something unrecognizable—something heavier than anger, sharper than betrayal. It was the kind of silence that didn’t wait to be broken… it waited to break you instead.“You knew.”My voice came out quieter this time.Not because I was calm—But because I was trying not to shatter.Lucian’s gaze didn’t leave mine.“Yes.”That one word.Again.It cut deeper now.Not because it was new—But because I finally understood the weight of it.“You knew about the curse,” I continued, my throat tightening. “About all of this—the marriages, the patterns, the… the way everything keeps falling apart around me like it was planned that way.”I let out a small, breathless laugh.“And you just… watched me.”His jaw clenched.“It wasn’t like that.”“Then tell me what it was like,” I snapped.Because I needed something—anything—that didn
Lila’s P.O.V.Morning came too gently for a night that had unsettled me so deeply.The light slipped through the curtains like nothing had happened—as though the palace had not whispered, had not shifted, had not revealed something it was never meant to show.But I knew better.I hadn’t imagined it.I sat at the edge of the bed, already dressed, already awake long before the sun had risen fully into the sky. My fingers were laced together tightly in my lap, my thoughts circling the same moment over and over again.The music.The shadow.The presence.And the way it had felt.Lucian was behind me, still lying in bed.Awake.I could feel it.Even without turning.There was a tension between us now—not loud, not explosive—but stretched thin like something ready to snap if touched the wrong way.“You didn’t sleep.”His voice broke the quiet.Low.Measured.Not accusing.But not soft either.“I didn’t feel like it,” I replied.A pause.Then the rustle of sheets as he sat up slowly.“You’ve
Lila’s P.O.VThe door had barely settled into its frame before the silence began to stretch.It wasn’t the kind of silence that simply *exists*.It *grew.*It seeped into the walls, into the air, into my chest—pressing, tightening, expanding until it felt like the entire room had inhaled and forgotten how to breathe out.Lucian was gone.And yet—It didn’t feel like he had left.It felt like something had been *taken.*I stood there for a long moment, the album still open in my hands, my fingers resting against the image of a past that refused to stay buried.Six men.Six promises.Six fractures of something I once believed was love.My eyes lingered on Julian again.It was strange how easily his face pulled me in now.Strange how I had overlooked him before.Or perhapsHow I had been made to overlook him.I exhaled slowly and shut the album.The sound echoed louder than it should have.Too loud.Everything felt too loud now.Even my thoughts.I placed the album back on the desk, but
Lila’s P.O.VThe morning Nico left did not feel like a farewell.There were no long embraces, no dramatic promises whispered between breaths, no tears clinging stubbornly to the edges of our eyes.Just a quiet understanding.A look that said "This is necessary."A silence that meant *we both know the risk.*I watched him go from the far end of the courtyard, standing behind the tall pillars where the guards would not notice me watching too closely. His figure moved with purpose, cloaked in something simple, something forgettable. That was the point.To disappear.To become no one.To walk into danger like it was just another street.And yet—To me, he was not forgettable.He was the only one walking toward the truth while I remained behind, wrapped in walls that were beginning to feel less like protection… and more like confinement.I exhaled slowly, turning away before anyone could question my presence.There was no time to linger on emotions.Not now.Not when everything around me w
Lila’s P.O.VThe night did not feel like night.It felt like something suspended—caught between revelation and ruin, between truth and the cost of knowing it.I had not changed out of my gown.I had not even tried to rest.The papers Nico brought me lay spread across my desk like quiet witnesses, each line inked with secrets that refused to stay buried any longer.Silas Graves.The name had not left my mind since Nico spoke it.It lingered.Heavy.Deliberate.Like a man who existed not just in flesh—but in consequence.I paced the length of my room, slow, measured steps against the marble floor, my thoughts threading and unthreading themselves with every turn.A lawyer.But not just a lawyer.A man who *writes in blood*.Because what I had seen in those ledgers—Those were not mere contracts.They were something else.Something binding.Something ancient.Something that had reached into my life long before I ever realized I was being watched… or worse—*Designed.*A soft knock came at







