CHAPTER 262
KATYA POV
When I stepped out of the bathroom, the first thing I noticed was the quiet.
Not the empty kind. Not the suffocating kind that made my chest ache. This quiet felt… settled. Like the room itself was holding its breath with me.
The steam clung to my skin, warm and heavy, my hair damp and loose down my back, droplets still sliding slowly along my shoulders.
The faint scent of soap wrapped around me like a second layer, clean and unfamiliar, as if I'd washed away more than just dirt.
I paused without meaning to, one hand still resting on the doorframe, my fingers curling lightly into the wood as if I needed something solid to ground me.
The room felt different again. Warmer somehow. Softer. Lived in.
Not like a place I was borrowing. Not like a space I was trespassing in. For the briefest moment, it felt like a place I was allowed to exist in.
