The city was quieter than it used to be.
Not peaceful.
Just… recalibrated.
Like something violent had finally stopped feeding on its own echo.
Dr. Chloe Rain stood alone at the edge of the river district, where everything had once started to feel like collapse.
Now it felt like memory.
Controlled.
Distant.
But not gone.
The wind moved across the water like a warning that no longer had a target.
And then she heard it.
Not footsteps.
Presence.
She didn’t turn immediately.
Because she already knew.
James Dean Luca didn’t arrive like before.
No surveillance logic.
No calculated distance.
No invisible control structure wrapped around his movement.
Just him.
Real.
Unfiltered.
Breathing the same air she was.
Chloe finally turned.
For a second, neither of them spoke.
Not b
Aksara