Elena’s pov

My head was finally quiet and I had almost forgotten what that felt like.

I sat at my desk, moving through emails without rereading the same line twice, sat through a briefing without my mind drifting somewhere it shouldn't, responded to messages without staring at my screen for five minutes first.

I noticed it myself.

Whatever had been twisting itself inside my chest for weeks had finally loosened. I wasn’t questioning every interaction or replaying conversations in my ...