The door opened under her hand before she was ready. She had meant to pause. To breathe. To think. But her fingers had already turned the handle and the door had already swung inward, and the room was already opening up in front of her, and he was already there. He stood by the window with his back to her. For one long, suspended moment, she thought it was Sebastian. The height was the same. The way he held his shoulders was the same. The line of his neck, the cut of his hair, the shape of him against the dull grey light coming through the curtains — all of it was Sebastian. But Sebastian was behind her, in the car, bleeding. So this wasn't Sebastian. He turned. Elara's breath stopped somewhere in her chest and refused to move. Her hand was still on the door handle. Her feet were still on the threshold. Her whole body had locked, the way a rabbit locks when it sees the hawk. He had Sebastian's face. He had Sebastian's jaw, Sebastian's brow, Sebastian's unreadable eyes. But unde
Last Updated : 2026-09-17
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