I stepped closer, fingers brushing the soft sweater folded on top. It felt like being quietly taken care of without being handled.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Of course.”
Connor’s attention had already sharpened. “Status.”
Ellsworth straightened slightly. “Protection is now in place for Miss Zee. Discreet. Continuous. Her colleagues will not be aware.”
My shoulders eased at that—not because the danger vanished, but because it had been addressed without asking me to shrink my life around it.
“She may return to the residency whenever she’s ready,” Ellsworth continued. “Your attention, however, is required today.”
Connor exhaled slowly. “I figured.”
The moment stretched. I didn’t like the idea of leaving him—not with everything unfolding, not with the echoes of his past still close—but I also felt something else stirring beneath the hesitation.
Readiness.
The desire to take my work back into the world not as a refuge, but as an offering.
When Ellsworth left, I dressed slowly, aware of Connor watching me. Like he was imprinting the image of me moving through his space in daylight. Belonging there without having to prove it.
When I reached for my camera, he nodded once, approving without comment.
“I don’t like leaving you,” I admitted quietly.
Connor crossed the room and rested his forehead against mine. “You’re not leaving,” he said. “You’re expanding.”
I smiled at that. “I want my work seen. Really seen. Élodie keeps saying I should submit somewhere, but I wasn’t ready before. I think … I am now.”
Connor’s hand slid into mine, grounding. Pride flickered across his face.
At the door, he stopped me with a light touch to my wrist.
“Come back,” he said quietly.
“I will,” I promised. “After I’m done.”
He kissed me then. A kiss that felt like punctuation.
As I stepped into the corridor, I felt it immediately—the subtle shift in atmosphere. Movement at the edges. Protection that didn’t announce itself.
Discreet.
Effective.
The certainty I’d be safe.
I adjusted the strap of my camera, breathing deeply, and headed toward the exit.
Paris waited for me.
I glanced back once, just to feel the pull.
Then I kept going.
29
