She reaches for my hand.
Not hurried. Not desperate.
Deliberate.
Her fingers slide into mine, warm and steady now.
“Cam?” she says, barely above a whisper.
“Yeah.”
Her thumb brushes over my knuckles. Tentative. Hopeful. Brave in the quietest way.
“Come home with me?”
The words hang between us, fragile and enormous all at once.
“Always.”
Chapter thirty-nine
Lila
The city slides past the tinted windows like a movie I’ve already seen and don’t need to watch again.
Inside the car, it’s quiet.
Not the old quiet.
Not the kind that feels like a room full of broken glass and one wrong breath away from bleeding.
This quiet is warm.
Cam sits beside me, close enough that our knees brush when the car shifts lanes.
My fingers are still curled in the sleeve of his jacket around my shoulders. It smells like him. Clean soap. A hint of cologne. The kind of comfort that makes my body soften before my brain can argue.
Every few minutes, I catch him looking at me.
Not staring.
Checking.
As if he’s still making sure I didn’t vanish into the noise.
I keep my eyes forward, but the corner of my mouth keeps betraying me. A small smile that won’t stop showing up, like my face forgot how to be guarded.
When we reach the building, Manny is there. He gives Cam a look that saysone mistake and I bite.
Then he gives me a look that saysI’m here, if you wobble.
I love him for that.
We ride the elevator up. The doors open, and the penthouse greets me like it’s been waiting.
I pause in the doorway.
It looks the same. White couch. Glass walls. City lights like scattered jewelry. Everything polished, expensive, curated.
