Chapter 50 A Glimpse Of Hope

• The soft glow of candlelight flickered across the dinner table, casting a warm, intimate ambiance in the room. The silence between Celia and Alexander wasn’t oppressive this time. There was a calmness, a peacefulness that hadn’t been there before. They were eating dinner, something simple, something normal, but for the first time in what felt like forever, they were both present in the moment.
• Celia looked across the table at Alexander, her eyes studying him in a way she hadn’t allowed herself to before. There was something different about him now, something softer. The walls that had once kept him so distant were beginning to crack, and she could see the vulnerability that lingered just beneath the surface. He wasn’t perfect—he never had been—but he was real. And that, in itself, was enough to make her heart beat a little faster.
• “Is this okay?” Alexander asked, his voice breaking the comfortable silence. He had just taken a bite of the meal she’d prepared—a simple pasta dish, but one that she’d made with care. “You didn’t have to go through all this trouble…”