Two years later...
The new house in Italy was everything Noel had drawn on paper in a room with no windows and a chain on his ankle.
He had built it from those drawings. Every proportion, every window placement, the kitchen with the specific layout he had planned three times until it was right.
The bedroom that caught the morning light. The small garden in the back that he had not planned but had added because the space was there.
He stood in front of the mirror while the maids worked.
He looked at the man in the reflection.
Two years had changed things. He stood differently. Moved differently. The specific watchfulness that had lived in him since the first morning he had woken up in this world, had not disappeared but had quieted considerably.
He was happy.
That still surprised him sometimes.
The maids finished and bowed and left.
Joel knocked once and came in.
