Night settled gently over the city, quiet and unassuming, as though it knew something life-altering was being planned beneath its calm surface.

In the small, familiar house that had once felt unsafe and distant, Elena slept deeply for the first time in weeks. The kind of sleep that came not from exhaustion alone, but from relief. Her body was finally learning again what it meant to rest without fear, without the constant sense of danger lurking in corners and shadows. Down the hall, Mrs. ...