Alle Kapitel von EYES OPEN: Kapitel 161 – Kapitel 165

The apartment smells of lavender, clean linen, and roasted tea.The contrast between the damp concrete sub-level of the Old Bailey and our living room in Clerkenwell is so sharp it feels like stepping between two different worlds.Nora meets us at the entrance. One look at our pale faces, at the dust still clinging to the hem of my wool coat, and she doesn't ask a single question about the courtroom. She takes my coat, her hands trembling slightly, and points toward the bedroom where Clara is sleeping."Felix is upstairs," Nora says quietly, her voice hoarse. "Detective Marsh called ten minutes ago to tell us you were en route. She told us what happened in the corridor."Rhys doesn't speak. He steps past his sister, his large hand still locked around mine, pulling me along with him into the dark, quiet bedroom.He shuts the door. He locks it. He doesn't switch on the lamps.In the dim afternoon light filtering through the linen curtains, he turns to me.His suit jacket hits the floor

The December afternoon light hits the restored arched windows at four o'clock, turning the stone of the main hall into a sea of liquid gold.

I notice the smile first.Not the small, private smile of a liar hiding a phone beside his plate. Not the curated, charming performance of a man managing two lives while his wife sits across from him cutting into chicken.This smile is open, warm, and entirely mine.It is eight o'clock in the evening. The guests from Clara's birthday party have left. The apartment is quiet again, filled with the soft amber glow of the streetlights filtering through the floor to ceiling windows and the gentle scent of roasted tea.Rhys sits across from me at our dark wood dining table.Clara is asleep in her room, exhausted from a afternoon of being adored by two grandmothers, three aunts, an uncle, and a cellist. Arlo is sprawled across the floor between our chairs, his one white ear resting against Rhys's foot.Rhys sets his wine glass down on the table. He isn't looking at a phone. His hands are resting flat on the wood, his dark eyes fixed entirely on me.