Chapter 4

The air inside the venue had grown heavy, thick with the residual scent of expensive perfume, old wood, and the faint, sweet tang of mulled wine that had been spilled and absorbed into the floorboards hours ago. Most of the guests had drifted away, their laughter fading into the night, leaving behind a hollow silence that felt louder than the chatter had ever been. I stood alone in a secluded corner of the room, a private nook tucked away behind heavy velvet drapes that framed a large, arched window looking out onto the snowy street. The glass was fogged at the edges, blurring the world outside into a smear of cold blue and white. Inside, the space was warm, lit by the warm, amber glow of string lights draped haphazardly across the exposed beams of the ceiling. Twinkling fairy lights wrapped around the wooden pillars that supported the roof, casting long, dancing shadows against the walls adorned with framed mirrors. It was intimate, secluded, and entirely ours for the moment. The floor was polished parquet, cool beneath my bare feet since I had kicked off my heels to dance. I shivered, not from the cold, but from the anticipation that