Chapter 108

Claire's POV The apartment Theo had secured for me was undeniably beautiful with a kitchen stocked with everything I could possibly need. It was the kind of place I would have dreamed of living in just months ago, before my life became a public spectacle. Now it felt like the most luxurious prison imaginable. Three days had passed since I'd fled the chaos outside my old apartment, and the silence was becoming unbearable. The absence of camera flashes and shouted questions should have brought relief, but instead it left me alone with my thoughts, replaying every cruel headline and vicious comment until they echoed in my mind like a broken record. I'd tried to establish routines to fill the endless hours. Morning coffee by the windows, watching joggers pass by on the tree-lined street below. Afternoons spent reading research papers on my laptop, trying to maintain some connection to the work that had once given my life meaning. Evenings attempting to lose myself in books or mindless tele