#Chapter 167: Unexpected Meeting

Ella POV The story unfolding on the stage below was utterly entrancing. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as the scene shifted to a beautiful young woman being pursued by her raving mother. The villain’s aria was both mesmerizing and terrifying, her powerful voice weaving between anguish and fury as the daughter begged for forgiveness and mercy. My heart raced. Alexander leaned closer, his lips brushing the shell of my ear as he explained what was being said. He had been doing this throughout the opera, his whispered words sending a pleasant shiver down my spine each time. His low, steady voice grounded me in the story, even as the intensity of the performance threatened to overwhelm me. In this scene, the Queen of the Night—the mother—was demanding her daughter commit murder. If she refused, she would be disowned. The gravity of the moment weighed heavily on me, and I instinctively leaned into Alexander’s steady presence beside me. By the time the final notes ran