The Ring and the Horizon

Lia's POV A week. Seven days, one hundred and sixty-eight hours, an eternity since I had fled that room, since I had walked out on Lucas’s shattered gaze and Brandon’s desperate pleas. Seven days since I had severed ties, not just with them, but with the version of myself entangled in their orbit. My new penthouse apartment, a temporary perch high above the Singapore cityscape, was a stark testament to that severance. Glass walls offered an expansive, glittering panorama of neon and concrete, a vibrant, ceaseless hum of life that felt both exhilarating and profoundly isolating. This was my new world, meticulously arranged, devoid of echoes from the old. I ran a hand over the cool, smooth surface of the expansive kitchen island, the marble reflecting the city lights like a shattered mirror. Everything here was new, sharp-edged, and impersonal – a perfect reflection of the impenetrable shell I was trying to rebuild around myself. My phone, a brand new device with a number known only to S