Chapter 47

The full moon hovered over the cliffside as if someone had pinned it there.

I stood on the terrace, barefoot, feeling the night air press against my skin. Behind me, the house slept. Liam had finally surrendered to dreams hours ago, after demanding—only yesterday—that Garrison check under his bed for monsters, then insisting he was far too old for such fears.

The launch was done, the interviews wrapped, and for the first time in weeks, nobody needed me. No cameras. No executives. No reporters wondering which version of myself was real. Only silence. And Garrison, somewhere inside.

“You disappeared.” His voice drifted to me from the doorway.

I didn’t turn around. “I only walked twenty feet.”

He stepped onto the terrace, pulled off his jacket, and draped it over my shoulders. Warmth unfurled in the hollow between my shoulder blades.

“Still counts,” he said, slipping his hands into his pockets.

I smiled, leaning into the warmth. “You’ll freez