CHAPTER 23 — THE SHADOWS MOVE IN SILENCE
The mansion no longer felt like a home.
Even the air that drifted through the hallways carried a quiet tension — a heaviness that pressed against the walls and floors, settling deep into the space like dust that refused to be swept away.
Mara didn't sleep that night.
She lay awake in Damian's room — the same room he forced her to stay in for safety — listening to the faint crackle of the security radios outside the door. Every whisper from the guards, every faint movement in the corridor, made her nerves jump.
Damian was awake too.
She knew because she could hear him pacing at the balcony, his sharp breaths mixing with the soft rustle of night wind.
He wasn't a man who feared easily.
But tonight, something was different.
Something was darker.
When the sky finally faded from black to blue, Damian returned inside. His expression held an exhaustion she'd never seen — not physical exhaustion, but the kind born from anger buried too deep.
