Chapter 64 The Aftermath

• Adrian POV
• She walks past me like I'm part of the shelf, and I let her, because I have absolutely no right to be anything else right now.
• I've been standing at the end of this library row for six minutes holding a book I grabbed without looking at the cover, watching Jules work at the corner table on the fourth floor — head down, pen moving, completely absorbed — and telling myself I'm waiting for the right moment when the truth is I'm just scared. She looks different. Not fragile-different, the way she looked the last time I saw her up close, that hollowed-out version of herself that I couldn't stop thinking about for weeks afterward. Different in the other direction. Quieter. More settled inside herself, like something that used to be loose has been nailed down.