Elara’s POV
I woke up and reached out instinctively, my hand landing on cold sheets. My chest tightened. Lucas wasn’t here.
For a moment, I tried to be rational. Maybe he’d gone for a run or got pulled into something urgent. But my thoughts didn’t care about logic. My brain whispered every worst-case scenario, flooding me with flashes of the chaos we’d just escaped.
The bed felt enormous and suffocating all at once. I sat up, my pulse racing. My eyes burned before I even realized I was crying.
“Get a grip,” I muttered to myself, pressing my palms into my eyes. But the harder I tried to push it down, the worse it got.
A sharp knock at the door snapped me out of it.
“Elara? It’s me.” Sabrina’s voice was calm, like she already knew what was going on.
I sniffled and wiped my face quickly. “Come in.”