Lena woke before dawn, not because something pulled her forward, but because nothing held her back. The room was still wrapped in that soft, in-between darkness where night hadn’t fully released its grip and morning hadn’t yet announced itself. She lay there, eyes open, listening to the quiet hum of the building, the distant, almost imperceptible sounds of a city breathing in its sleep.She felt steady.Not alert in the way she once had been poised, ready, braced but steady in a deeper sense, as if her inner rhythm had finally aligned with the world outside her.She turned onto her side and watched Eli sleep. There was comfort in the familiarity of his presence, but also something else: a recognition that she no longer depended on it to feel whole. Their closeness felt chosen each day, not required to fill a gap.She let that realization rest inside her without dissecting it.When she got up, she moved through the apartment quietly, allowing the morning to unfold at its own pace. She
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