Chapter 44

The first rays of dawn peeked through the curtains, casting a soft golden glow on the bedroom walls. Erica lay in Julian’s arms, her head resting on his chest, listening to the rhythmic beat of his heart. It was a quiet, almost surreal moment in contrast to the chaos that surrounded their lives. She hadn’t expected things to unfold this way—not between them, not this quickly—but after everything, there was a strange sense of peace in the vulnerability they had just shared.

But peace, she knew, was fleeting.

Julian stirred beneath her, his hand gently brushing the hair away from her face. "You awake?" His voice was a low murmur, heavy with sleep but laced with that ever-present edge of awareness.

"Yeah," Erica replied softly, her fingers tracing the faint scars on his arm. Each one told a story, though Julian rarely spoke of them. She had always wondered about the life he’d lived before all this—before her, before their entanglement in her family’s dark legacy. Now, more than ever, she