Chapter 15: Navigating the Depths

The storm had finally broken.

Not the one raging outside, not the one that had clawed its way through the night and into the fragile peace of Serena’s apartment. That one still grumbled in the distance, a low, guttural threat that had settled into the very bones of the city. This was the storm within. The one that had been held at bay, managed, controlled, for as long as she could remember.

It broke with the quietest of sounds. The gentle click of the coffeemaker finishing its brew. The soft scrape of Adrian’s chair as he pulled it back from the small kitchen table. The mundane domesticity of it all. It was too much. Too normal. Too safe.