Just… still.
Like everything inside me finally had room to breathe.
The courthouse was behind us now. The noise, the cameras, the voices—all of it fading the farther we got from it.
And for the first time in years…
I wasn’t carrying it with me.
I stood near the window in Ace’s place, sunlight spilling across the floor, my fingers resting lightly against the glass.
“I keep waiting for it to feel different,” I said softly.
“It will,” Ace replied from behind me.
His voice was close.
Closer than before.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I think it already does.”
Because something had changed.
Not just outside.
Inside.
I turned slowly.
He was watching me.
That same steady look.
But softer now.
Like the edge had eased just enough to let something else through.
“You didn’t leave,” I said.
A small smile touched his mouth. “You’re still surprised by that?”
“A little.”
“Get used to it.”
My breath caught.
Because there was no hesitation in him.
No doubt.
Just… certainty.
“You stood in that courtroom like you weren’t afraid of anything,” he said.
“I was,” I admitted.
“Didn’t look like it.”
