Chapter 55

• The morning after the leaks settled into silence. Not the kind that feels peaceful, but the kind that stretches across a room when there is too much left unspoken. Julian woke before I did, quietly sliding out of bed with a softness that made me pretend I was still asleep. I heard him pad across the floor, the subtle rustle of fabric as he dressed, the click of the door as he stepped out into the kitchen. For a long time, I stayed there, curled beneath the sheets that still held the warmth of his body, staring at the ceiling like it might offer me a reason for why everything still felt so exposed.
• The messages from the whistleblower had stopped after our conversation. No new threats, no new tips, just that one strange act of conscience that tipped the scale. It should have made me feel more secure, but instead it unsettled me. Betrayal without resolution clings to the skin like smoke. I could feel it in every breath.
• There was no time to linger. Today was the soft launch. Not the grand reemergence the press had once speculated about, not the orchestrated event Alessia might have designed in my place. This would be different. Intimate. Personal. A quiet declaration that I had never truly disappeared, only evolved. I chose the pieces carefully, every stitch and silhouette echoing the woman I had become. Nothing ostentatious, no sweeping speeches or mirrored halls. Just the clothes, the people who mattered, and a single evening to mark a shift in the air.