When Cassie returned home, the mansion was quieter than usual. Nikolai hadn’t arrived. She noticed it immediately, not because she was waiting anxiously, but because she had grown accustomed to his presence anchoring the house in a way that felt instinctive now, like the steady heartbeat of everything she had built. So Cassie rolled up her sleeves, washed her hands, and then went into the kitchen. She prepared dinner herself, moving almost automatically, chopping vegetables, stirring sauces, letting the mundane rhythm of domesticity ground her thoughts, which had been spinning all day, dangerously. Emily’s nanny, whom Emily insisted on calling “Mommy number two,” had already bathed her after the little menace had turned the garden into a battlefield of dirt, grass stains, and triumph. By the time Cassie finished plating dinner, Emily was already climbing into her chair, her tiny body full of restless energy, her legs swinging back and forth as if the world might collapse if
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