Chapter 163

Nikolai. The sun was beginning its slow descent, drenching the estate in a thick, golden haze. The gardens looked like they belonged in a painting, every blade of grass and stone path lit up like someone had dipped them in honey. The air had that crisp, early evening bite to it—the kind that hinted at colder nights ahead, the kind that made your breath puff out in little clouds if you waited long enough. It was the kind of quiet that settled not just around you, but inside you. I hadn’t realized how bad I needed that silence until I was drowning in it. Not the fake kind you get in the middle of chaos when your brain just...short-circuits. No, this was real silence. Healing silence. Aurelio sat next to me on the stone steps, hunched forward slightly, elbows resting on his knees. His hand curled loosely around the iron railing beside him, fingertips absently tracing the cold metal. His gaze was fixed out past the gardens, past the trees, locked on some point on the horizon only he could