Sleep had abandoned her weeks ago.
It circled just beyond reach, waiting until exhaustion dragged her under for an hour or two before another dreamβor the absence of oneβwrenched her awake.
Tonight was no different.
Barefoot, wrapped in a thin robe against the cool night air, she slipped downstairs in search of tea. Silence. Anything that belonged only to her for a little while longer.
The entrance hall lay in darkness, moonlight spilling through the tall windows onto polished marble.
She was halfway across it when the front door opened.
A rush of cool air drifted inside.
Someone stepped over the threshold.
A travel pack lowered to the floor.
For years, sheβd caught glimpses of him everywhere.
A male with dark hair disappearing into a crowd.
Shadows stretching across a rooftop at dusk.
A familiar laugh carried on the wind before she remembered his laugh had always been too quiet to travel that far.
Her mind had become cruel in the years heβd been gone.
She counted a single breath.
His shadows drifted over the marble floor.
Every impossible inch of him.
Her breath snagged somewhere beneath her ribs.
As though heβd heard it.
Time had not softened him.
It had made him dangerous.
Harder around the mouth. Broader through the shoulders. Dark stubble shadowed the face sheβd spent years forcing herself not to remember. New scars traced skin sheβd once imagined tracing herself.
She should have felt anger.
Instead, something long buried stirred painfully back to life.
Five years of teaching herself not to look for him whenever a room fell quiet.
Five years of trading away tiny pieces of herself until sheβd almost forgotten who sheβd been before he left.
And one look was all it took for her to realise sheβd only been pretending.
His expression didnβt change. But something dark flickered behind his hazel eyes.
His gaze drifted over her face as though committing it to memory.
To the diamond glinting against her left hand.
He looked at it for only a heartbeat.
When his eyes returned to hers, whatever sheβd glimpsed had disappeared behind the same unreadable mask heβd always worn.
βI hear congratulations are in order.β
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