Two weeks changed the estate in ways Vinny hadn't expected.
The halls felt warmer. Less like a fortress, more like a place where people actually lived. The guards still stood where they always had, still watched with sharp eyes and disciplined stillness—but the tension that once clung to the walls like smoke had thinned. Not gone. Never gone. Just… quieter.
Vinny noticed it most in himself.
His body had healed fully. Bruises faded, stitches removed, soreness reduced to memory. He woke without pain now, moved without caution. He trained again—lightly at first, then with growing confidence—until Matthew's doctor finally relented and declared him "insufferably healthy."
Matthew had looked far too pleased at that.
Aiden, though…
Vinny slowed his steps as he reached the guest wing.
