جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 100

Ava’s povI closed my apartment door and pressed my back against it, the faint click of the lock echoing too loudly in the silence. My hands were trembling, though I told myself it was just from the cold night air and not from the weight of Ezra’s stare that still lingered on me.I kicked off my heels and padded across the room, the city lights spilling through the windows in fractured patterns. I should’ve gone straight to bed, buried myself under blankets, and willed myself to forget everything that happened at dinner but forgetting wasn’t possible. I curled up on the couch, pulling my knees to my chest. My phone buzzed on the coffee table. For a heartbeat, I prayed it was Alex. If it was Alex, at least I could ground myself in his simple warmth, his brotherly teasing, and his blind obliviousness.But it wasn’t Alex.It was EzraEzra: I’m coming over. Don’t argue.My throat went dry. I should’ve told him no. I should’ve ignored the message, blocked his number, burned every bridg

Alex’s povWhen Ezra left the penthouse, the stair still held the ghost of his footsteps. It was a hollow, decisive cadence that sounded too much like escape. I watched the door close from and for a second I felt the whole room tilt, as if gravity had remembered the shape of something I hadn’t noticed before and pulled it out into plain sight.Emily sat at the table with both hands wrapped around her mug. Her fingers were white-knuckled from the heat, and the steam clouded against her glasses. She hadn’t touched the tea. She hadn’t let anything go back to normal since she’d bolted from the office. That was the thing about guilt, it gave people new, exhausting rhythms, and she had learned them all in an hour.“I should go,” she kept saying, like a mantra. Like if she said it enough it would be true.“You don’t have to go anywhere,” I said. I hadn’t meant to be soft, but the words came out that way, honest and low. “Not tonight.”She laughed, a short, raw sound. “You’d be surprised

Emily’s POVWhen I woke up, the room was already filled with the morning sun. The curtains were thin enough that the city bled through them, the neon softened into daylight. For a moment I didn’t remember where I was. I only knew warmth, the smell of coffee grounds lingering somewhere in the apartment, and the solid weight of someone’s arm beneath my cheek.Then I moved, and the shape of him clarified. I was in Alex’s room.His breathing was slow, he was not quite asleep, not quite awake. I realized how still I had been lying, as if my body was afraid of startling the fragile thing between us.I didn’t move away.“Morning,” he said, his voice rough, like the first note of a song that hadn’t been rehearsed.“Morning,” I whispered back. My throat was dry, the word catching in the middle.Neither of us shifted immediately, but my mind was already racing, circling all the rules we had made hours before, the bargain struck in the thin light of midnight. We had agreed to be careful. T

Alex’s POVThe city had a way of erasing time. A week could vanish in the spaces between stolen nights. Emily and I had been carving out time to be with each other.We would stay in my apartment when no one was watching, late walks that doubled back on themselves to throw off suspicion, excuses that sounded good enough when repeated with confidence.It was reckless and yet, every time I told myself I’d put an end to it, I found her again or maybe she found me. Tonight, she sat curled up on my couch, her knees drawn to her chest, a sweater slipping off one shoulder. The soft lamplight made her hair glow, but there was no glow in her eyes. They were shadowed, tired in a way I couldn’t joke away.“You’re quiet,” I said, breaking the silence that had stretched too long.She glanced at me, then back down at the chipped mug in her hands. She hadn’t even sipped the tea I’d made her. “I’m thinking.”“That sounds dangerous.” I tried for lightness, but the words landed flat.She didn’t laug

Ava’s povThe apartment lights glared too bright when I pushed through the door, my hand trembling just enough on the knob to betray me. I didn’t bother to hang up my coat or kick off my heels. My whole body was wired with the kind of restless energy that couldn’t sit still.The faint hum of the dishwasher ran in the background, and the living room lamp was on. She was home.Of course she was.“Emily?” My voice came out sharper than I meant.She appeared from the hallway, pajama shorts and a loose T-shirt, her hair still damp from a shower. She froze when she saw me, like she could already read the storm rolling off me.“You’re home early,” she said cautiously.I let out a bitter laugh. “Yeah, dinner didn’t exactly go the way I planned.”Her brow creased. “Dinner with Alex?”I flinched at his name. “You knew, didn’t you?”Emily’s lips parted, then pressed together again. Her silence was enough.I dropped my purse onto the couch with a thud. “How long, Emily? How long were you pla