Chapter 108 Glass Houses: Part 1

• The drive home feels endless, each mile seemingly stretching into decades between heartbeats. I curl deeper into the leather seat, letting shopping bags create distance between myself and the empty seat beside me—the seat Efrem typically takes.
• Outside, the world passes in smears of color and shadow, but all I can see is Dimitri’s careful smile, the subtle threat behind his words. The attack on the mansion haunts me once again. The precise military coordination, the strategic timing—it carries Dimitri’s signature like a watermark. Today’s warning feels less like coincidence and more like a reminder: what he’s capable of, how far he’s willing to go.
• If I ask Efrem…