ISLA~
Leonard hadn't said a word to me since our confrontation earlier.
He sat sleeping across the aisle, arms folded.
Even when he finally woke up, he just sat there staring out the window, his jaw tight in the way it only got when he was swallowing something he wasn't ready to say out loud.
I didn't push it.
The wheels touched down at 11:47 PM.
I watched the runway lights blur past the window as the jet decelerated, the familiar weight of this particular country settling over me like something I had never fully shaken off.
The doors opened and the night air hit immediately — cool, clean, smelling faintly of pine and wet earth. Nothing like the city. Nothing like anywhere else I had lived in the past five years.
Three black vehicles were already waiting on the tarmac, engines running.
Staff stood at attention beside them. The moment they saw us descending the stairs, the movement began — luggage retrieved, doors opened, positions taken.
