Ella closed her chamber door with more care than usual, the soft click of the lock echoing louder than it should have in the stillness of the room. It sounded final. Sealed. Like she had just locked herself inside a secret. Or a truth she wasn't sure she wanted to known.
The flickering candlelight danced across her walls as she moved toward her dressing table, the book still clutched tightly in her hand. Her fingers trembled slightly, betraying the calm mask she had worn so carefully in front of Nathan.
She placed the book down and stared at it, and for a long moment, she didn't move.
The book sat there innocently, like any other object in the room. Leather-bound, and unassuming. A simple thing, and yet it carried weight. The kind of weight that bends futures.
Ella swallowed, then slowly and carefully, she opened it.
