CHAPTER 94 – A CONVERSATION BUILT ON FEAR AND LOVE
The house was quiet when I returned that kind of soft, living silence that only came when the people you loved were inside it. The air smelled faintly of lavender and roasted vanilla Rina's diffuser, the one she said made the house feel "less like a mansion and more like home."
It should have calmed me.
It didn't.
I dropped my keys on the counter, loosening my tie as I stepped into the living room. She was there barefoot on the couch, a glass of white wine in hand, laptop open beside her. Her hair was loose, tumbling around her shoulders in soft waves that glowed under the golden light.
"Hey, stranger," she said without looking up, her voice light and teasing. "You remembered you live here?"
I smiled faintly, that tired half-smile that belonged only to her. "Traffic was bad."
She looked up then, and her eyes met mine soft brown, steady, too knowing. "Or maybe you stayed late again."
