ログインDylan's POV There’s a difference between visiting a place… and starting to feel like you belong in it.I noticed it the moment I stepped into her apartment again. It wasn’t just familiarity. It was the way my body didn’t tense.The way my eyes didn’t scan automatically like they usually did in unfamiliar spaces. The way I knew without thinking, where things were, the couch, the kitchen counter. Leo’s growing construction project that now looked like it had taken over half the living room. I stepped over a carefully placed block, adjusting my stride instinctively.“Careful!” Leo called out from the floor, his hands frozen mid-air like I had just almost caused a disaster.“I see it,” I said.“No, you don’t,” he insisted. “That part is very important.” I crouched down slightly, studying the structure like it was something worth analyzing.“And what does this part do?” I asked.“It holds everything together.” I glanced at him.“That’s a lot of responsibility.”“I know,” he said seriously
Aliya's POV Morning came slowly, soft light filtered through the curtains in thin golden lines, stretching lazily across the walls and spilling onto the bed. The air carried that quiet stillness that only existed before the city fully woke up, the distant hum of early traffic, the occasional sound of a car door shutting somewhere below, faint and far away.For a moment, I didn’t move. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, trying to hold onto that fragile space between sleep and awareness, but then, it came back.Everything from last night, the kiss, the conversation, the way I didn’t pull away. I closed my eyes briefly, exhaling slowly.“This is getting out of hand,” I whispered to myself, but the words didn’t carry the same certainty anymore, because if I was being honest. It didn’t feel like something spinning out of control.It felt like something settling into place, and that was far more dangerous. Leo’s voice broke through my thoughts not long after.“Mom!” I pushed myself
Dylan's POVFor the first time since I met her, she didn’t pull away completely, she stepped back, yes, created space but she stayed and that mattered more than the kiss.More than the words.More than anything else that had happened tonight.I watched her carefully, the way she shifted her weight slightly, like she was still grounding herself, still adjusting to something new she hadn’t fully accepted yet.Her arms dropped from where she had wrapped them around herself earlier, now resting loosely at her sides, less guarded, not open but not closed either… progress.“You’re quiet,” I said. She let out a soft breath, glancing away briefly before looking back at me.“I’m thinking.”“That’s dangerous.” A faint smile touched her lips, barely there but real.“You’re one to talk.”“I’ve already decided.”“That’s exactly the problem.”“It’s only a problem if I’m wrong.” She tilted her head slightly.“And you don’t think you are?”“No.”Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment longer this time
Aliya's POVFor a moment after he pulled away, I couldn’t move.I stood there, exactly where he had left me, my hand still resting lightly against his chest like it hadn’t gotten the message that everything had just changed.The room felt… different.Not in a loud way.Nothing had shifted physically, the furniture was the same, the soft glow of the city still spilled through the window, the faint hum of distant traffic carried through the glass.But something inside me, something quiet and carefully controlled for years, had just been undone.My lips still tingled faintly, the warmth of the kiss lingering in a way that made it impossible to pretend it hadn’t happened.I swallowed.Slowly.Then inhaled.But even that felt unsteady.Dylan hadn’t moved far.He stood close, close enough that I could still feel the heat of him, still sense the space we had just crossed and couldn’t uncross.And the worst part?I didn’t want to.That realization hit deeper than anything else.I looked up at
Dylan's POV There was something about the way she looked at me that night that made it impossible to pretend this was still simple. It wasn’t just the softness. Or the lack of resistance.It was the fact that she wasn’t hiding it anymore.Not completely.She stood a few steps away from me, the dim glow from the city lights slipping through the window behind her, outlining her figure in soft shadows. The room felt quieter now, the kind of quiet that didn’t come from silence but from everything settling into place. Leo was asleep. The world outside kept moving.But in here, everything felt suspended“You’re thinking again,” I said, Her lips curved faintly, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.“I do that.”“Too much.”“And you don’t do it enough.”“I do it when it matters.” She tilted her head slightly, studying me.“And this matters?”“Yes.” There was no hesitation, no pause, just truth.Something shifted in her expression again—something deeper this time. Not just uncertainty. Recognit
Aliya's POVThe sound of Leo’s laughter carried easily down the hallway, bright, unrestrained.It bounced lightly off the walls, filling the apartment in a way that made everything feel warmer than it actually was.I stood where I was for a moment after Dylan disappeared into Leo’s room, my fingers resting loosely against the edge of the door.Then I exhaled, slowly.Like I was trying to release something I hadn’t fully named yet.It didn’t work, because even from here, I could hear them.Leo talking too fast, his words tumbling over each other.Dylan responding, calmer, steady, like he had all the time in the world.And the strange part?He sounded like he belonged there. That was what unsettled me. Not the fact that he came back, but how easily he fit into a space I had spent years building carefully, deliberately, without anyone else in it.I closed the door gently and leaned back against it for a second, staring ahead.“This is not normal,” I muttered under my breath.But the word
Aliya's POVI keep staring at my phone long after the call ends.Even though the line has gone dead, my hand is still wrapped around it, pressed against my ear as if Dylan’s voice might suddenly come back through it. My fingers have gone slightly numb from holding the phone so tightly, but I don’t
Aliya's POV“I have moved on, I suggest you do the same.”He looked at me as if he was in an actual pin and, somewhere deep down, I felt like I had hurt him but when I remembered how he had looked at me the night he gave me the divorce papers, I knew that I could not believe anything from him, so I
Aliya's POV“You didn’t tell me you would come,” I said as I saw Dylan’s Porsche parked outside the school’s compound. It is another visitation at the school.“You did not ask.”“But we both agreed you wouldn’t come when he insisted.”“Yes, and then he called me and I could not turn him down.”“Oh
Aliya's POVI could almost swear I saw so many questions in his eyes that I was not going to answer. He most likely wanted to know if Richard’s claims were true, but I know he had a question or doubt something like that. He did not voice it and I felt he did not need to know that.Getting home that







