Chapter 71 First Steps In The Shadows

• (POV: Elena)
• The tiny, stuffy room in the Madrid pensión felt like a prison cell, but it was, for now, Elena’s. Isabela Montoya was a ghost, a name I buried deeper each day with the hardening resolve inside me. The tears had dried. The initial panic subsided into a constant, thrumming watchfulness, a low hum of fear that lingered. Madrid was vast, noisy, and indifferent. A perfect place to disappear, if you knew how. I didn't. Not yet.
• Camila’s money, what little remained after the flight and finding this miserable room, wouldn't last long. A thin piece of plastic, bought for next to nothing, shifted in my coat like something alive. Maybe it could trick someone who wasn’t paying attention - someone tired, maybe, or distracted by their own thoughts. A glance at a name, a quick nod - that’s all it was meant to handle. Real questions would break it apart fast. Without work, without papers that didn’t raise doubts, staying safe became harder each day. Elena needed more than disguise. Isabela hadn’t belonged to herself. Elena needed to become different. A person able to move without notice, carving paths alone.