Chapter 10
The weeks leading up to the school’s reopening were a cocoon of soft sunlight and quiet healing. For the first time in three years, the Thorne estate didn't feel like a high security vault, it felt like a home.
?Anna realized quickly that the twins’ fears were rooted in the suddenness of the world.
Loud noises, slamming doors, and the dark were all potential triggers.
To counter this, she turned the scary into a game.
?"The flour isn't just for bread, Leo," Anna whispered during a late afternoon baking session. "It’s for ghost hunting."
?She showed them how to sprinkle a fine layer of flour across the kitchen floor. If anyone walked through, they’d leave a trail.
"Now, no one can sneak up on us. We have the perimeter secured."
?Aiden watched from the doorway, a rare, genuine smile tugging at his lips as he saw his children, once terrified of every creak, laughing while they patrolled the kitchen.
Sofia walked in, her heels clicking sharply.
"Aiden, look at this mess! The flour will ruin the marble. Surely the tutor should know better."
?Aiden didn't even look at Sofia.
"They’re laughing, Sofia. I don’t care about the marble."
?Anna didn't acknowledge the barb. She simply handed Mia a rolling pin.
"Ignore the noise, Mia. We’re busy being engineers."
?The second week focused on the fear of the dark.
Instead of force feeding them bravery, Anna introduced the "Lantern Corps." She spent an evening with Aiden and the twins in the living room, building a massive fort out of velvet cushions, sheets, and soft golden light.
?"In this fort, we control the light," Anna explained, handing each twin a small, high powered LED lantern.
?Aiden joined them inside the cramped, cozy space. For the first time, the King of the city was sitting on a plush rug, surrounded by fairy lights and picture books.
?"Daddy, I get scared when the lights go out because I can't see the way out," Leo confessed, his voice small.
?Aiden’s heart tightened, but before he could speak, Anna intervened.
"Then we don't turn them out. We dim them. And we count the steps to the door together until the path is a song you can sing in your sleep."
That night, none of them left the fort.
?Aiden leaned back against the cushions, watching Anna read a story about a dragon who was actually just a misunderstood lizard.
In the glow of the lanterns, Aiden caught Anna’s gaze.
No mystery. No masks.
Just a woman who was stitching his family back together.
?Every evening, after the twins finally fell into a deep, trigger free sleep, Anna and Aiden would share a quiet moment in the hallway.
?"You're doing more than teaching them math, Anna," Aiden whispered one night, his hand lingering near hers on the banister.
?"They're smart children, Aiden. They just needed someone to show them that the world isn't always a blast zone," she replied softly.
?From the shadows, Sofia, Vanessa and Elena watched the exchange in silence.
Jealousy lingered in their expressions, sharp and unhidden.
?Anna felt their eyes on her back.
In her old life, a look that cold would have preceded a knife in the dark. Here, it was just the petty spite of amateurs.
She ignored them, her focus entirely on the man standing before her and the children sleeping behind the door.
?For two weeks, the monsters stayed away.
As the night before school arrived, Mia hugged Anna’s waist. "I’m not scared to go back," the little girl whispered.
"Because I have my Spy Trees and my Ghost Flour."
?Aiden looked at Anna, a silent vow forming in his chest. He wanted to protect the peace she had brought into his life, at any cost.
The Thorne estate was never truly silent to Anna.
At 3:00 AM, she heard what others missed, soft machine hums, distant waves, and the steady rhythm of a guarded house.
When nightmares came, she didn’t reach for tea or a book.
She moved instead.
She had discovered a structural blind spot near the north chimney, a narrow crawlspace that led to a flat, recessed section of the roof hidden by decorative cornices.
It was invisible to the estate’s cameras and unreachable by the standard patrol routes.
It was her "perch."
Every night, she would slip through the shadows, her movements fluid and soundless, carrying the disassembled parts of her long range rifle.
She liked the cold air against her face, it reminded her she was alive.
On this particular night, Anna lay prone on the cold stone, her eye pressed to the high powered optic of her rifle, scanning the tree line 800 yards out.
She moved the barrel with surgical precision, checking the heat signatures of the roaming guards below.
Then, she saw it.
It wasn't a Valenti hitman or a Rossi scout.
She panned the scope toward the private balcony of the master suite.
Aiden was there.
He was shirtless despite the biting cold, leaning against the railing with a glass of amber liquid in his hand.
He wasn't looking at the city lights or the ocean. His head was tilted up, his gaze fixed directly on the section of the roof where she lay hidden.
Anna froze, her finger hovering over the trigger guard.
For a terrifying second, she thought he had spotted her. But his expression wasn't one of alarm, it was one of deep, agonizing contemplation.
He stood there for a long time, looking at her hidden sanctuary as if he could feel the presence of the ghost guarding his house.
Then, he raised his glass in a silent, slow toast toward the shadows before turning back into his room.
Anna pulled back from the scope, her heart hammering against her ribs.
He didn't know she was a sniper, but he knew she was there.
The King was watching his ghost, and the game they were playing had just become infinitely more dangerous.