I stared at the ceiling, sunlight tracing lines across cracked plaster, and tried to make it fit.
She hadn’t been living here, not really. Not if Sabine was with Étienne full-time. Not if mornings looked like breakfast tables and school runs and crayon drawings on refrigerators somewhere else.
So, why pay rent on an entire apartment in Paris? Why keep clothes here, dishes in cabinets, books stacked beside the bed like she’d be back tomorrow?
A backup life? A backup to a backup?
I shifted slightly, Kane’s arm sliding absently across my hip as he adjusted, unaware my brain had started running again.
Rose hadn’t been reckless with money. She’d always been careful. Practical. The one reminding me to save receipts and cancel subscriptions I forgot about. Maintaining two homes in one of the most expensive cities in the world didn’t match that version of her.
Unless she thought she needed it.
The thought made my stomach tighten.
Unless this place wasn’t just convenience.
Unless it was protection.
I pushed myself up onto one elbow, staring at the closed bedroom door as if answers might appear there.
Had she kept this apartment separate so no one connected her American life to Étienne and Sabine?
So, if someone came asking questions, they’d find this version of Rose—corporate trainer, independent expat, neat, professional, unattached.
Not mother.
Not partner.
Not part of a family.
A decoy life.
My pulse ticked faster.
The notebook flashed in my mind. Her warnings. The sense she’d been afraid of something I still didn’t fully understand.
Was she protecting them?
Or hiding from someone?
A cold thread slid down my spine.
Had she thought someone might come looking?
And if they did, she’d rather they found her alone than found her daughter?
The idea lodged deep in my chest, heavy and unsettling.
Rose had always been brave in quiet ways. Not loud or dramatic, but stubborn when it mattered. Protective.
Had she built this separation deliberately?
A firewall between danger and her child?
Between consequences and the people she loved?
And if that was true …
