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Chapter Ten — Dawn 

Author: Banas
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-04 21:29:18

I wake to sunlight stabbing through my thin curtains, vicious and uninvited—the kind that doesn’t warm you so much as interrogate you. My head throbs with a pulse of its own, beating behind my eyes while my throat feels scraped raw, and my mouth tastes like I spent the night chewing metal shavings instead of sleeping. I blink against the glare, wanting to roll over and disappear, but the day has already started without me—loud, intrusive, and completely indifferent to the fact that I went through hell twelve hours ago. As I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling, I try to convince myself that last night was real—that Adrian’s voice actually carved through me, that I actually walked out of his penthouse carrying checks that feel like handcuffs.

I shove the blanket off and sit up slowly, the mattress springs groaning under my weight like they resent being disturbed. The house is already alive—voices and movement bleeding through the walls as the kettle whistles its shrill morning an
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