Elena sat at the edge of her bed long after the house had gone quiet while the lamps were off and the curtains were half-drawn with only the faint glow of the city outside filtering into the room, enough to outline her figure as she rested one hand on her stomach and the other against the mattress for balance.Sleep refused to come while her mind kept circling back to the woman hidden under her roof breathing softly in a room that wasn’t hers and carrying a child that wasn’t supposed to exist in Elena’s carefully rebuilt future - Seraphina.Elena closed her eyes slowly “I can’t hurt you” she whispered into the dark, “Not you… not the baby”That truth had settled in her chest hours ago, heavy and immovable that there was a line she could not cross no matter how twisted things had become and no matter the lies she had told herself to survive. She had crossed many already but not that one.Really hurting Seraphina would mean becoming something Elena no longer wanted to be and it would mea

Victor Blackwood laughed though it wasn’t loud and wasn’t manic but it was slow, deliberate and almost pleased, while the sound echoed faintly through the living room of his estate, bouncing off polished marble floors and walls decorated with art he’d collected over the years but never truly cared about.He lifted the glass of whiskey in his hand watching the amber liquid swirl as the city lights outside his tall windows shimmered like distant stars, while somewhere beyond those lights, Adrian Hart was finally breathing easily again, and somewhere beyond them, Elena believed she had survived the storm.Victor took a measured sip “So easy” he murmured, “Both of you”He turned away from the window and walked slowly through the room with his shoes making no sound against the floor because every step was unhurried, since there was no need to rush anymore.Victor Blackwood was not the man on the defensive for the first time in a very long time.Adrian had forgiven him and that alone still

Seraphina woke up to silence and not the familiar silence of a guarded room or the dull hum of security beyond a door, but a wide and empty quiet that pressed in from all sides while her eyes fluttered open slowly with lashes heavy and her head pounding as if her skull had been split and poorly stitched back together as the ground beneath her was hard, uneven and cold “Where…” her voice cracked, “Where am I?” She pushed herself up on her elbows and immediately regretted it while a wave of dizziness slammed into her forcing her back down with her breath in shallow pulls as she blinked against the brightness of the morning sky above her with no ceiling and no walls but just open air.Panic crawled up her spine and she sat up slower again this time with her movements careful as she looked around the dirt road, tall grass, trees stretching far in both directions and a rusted signpost in the distance with its lettering half peeled away by time and weather and then nothing else; no car, no

Elena stepped into Adrian’s living room with a brightness that seemed to light the space before she even spoke while her eyes sparkled, her smile was unguarded, and the tension that had clung to her shoulders for weeks was gone.Adrian looked up from where he was standing near the window with phone in hand, while he frowned slightly not in concern but in surprise the moment he saw her “You look…” He trailed off studying her face, “Different”Elena laughed softly “Different good, I hope”“Very good” Adrian said slowly, “You look happy… Really happy”She walked closer stopping just a step away from him “I am”Rhea, who had been seated on the couch flipping through something on her tablet glanced up “That meeting must’ve gone extremely well”Elena nodded enthusiastically “Better than I hoped”Adrian set his phone down with his attention fully on Elena now “You said it was important. I was worried it would drain you”“It didn’t” she said quickly, “It resolved things. Completely”He search

Seraphina stayed where she was long after the phone had gone dark with her hands resting loosely in her lap while her shoulders slumped as though the weight of the world had finally found where to sit. The room felt smaller, quieter and heavier now that even the sunlight that filtered through the thin curtains seemed muted as if it too had learned something painful and didn’t know how to behave afterward.Mira watched her from across the room unsure at first whether to speak or give her space because she’d seen pain before but this was the kind that hollowed a person out from the inside leaving them present but unreachable.Mira finally spoke after several minutes of silence “You’re allowed to cry, you know”Seraphina didn’t look up “I already did”“That wasn’t crying” Mira said gently, “That was shock”Seraphina let out a shaky breath “Then maybe I’m saving the crying for later”Mira moved closer and sat on the chair beside the bed “You saw something that hurt you deeply. Anyone woul