I turned her to Luca.
He took her hand and slid into my place, not missing a step. She pivoted like we’d rehearsed it since birth. We have. Just with other rituals. Ones I had every intention of repeating tonight.
I shifted behind her now. Her shoulder brushed my chest and I inhaled once like a drowning man breaking surface.
“You two look like you planned this,” she said, accusing.
“We plan everything,” Luca said.
“Not everything,” she said, eyes tipping up to meet his. “Some things you just… let happen.”
He didn’t look away. I watched the data scroll behind his eyes—every code he’d write, every camera he’d kill, every room he’d bulldoze to give her one uncontested moment like this—and then I watched him choose to do none of it right now. Just the moment.
“Some things,” he agreed.
A burst of applause from the stern announced a toast. Someone had stolen a microphone. God help us, I thought.
“Hide,” Emilia said, grinning.
We did.
Down a level, we slipped through the side passage the crew used.
The air was cooler here. We ended in the viewing lounge where the glass dipped below the waterline. The world’s noise muffled into hum. No one followed. Staff understood the orders from one look.
She stepped up to the glass and leaned her forehead to it. I stood by the door, Luca took the corner where he could watch every angle.
“I used to dream about this,” she said softly. “Being underwater without holding my breath.”
We know baby. That’s why this room is designed like this.
“Dream bigger,” Luca said.
“I’m working on it.”
“What’s the new dream,” I asked.
She didn’t answer right away. Her reflection looked back at me in the glass—us beside her, like we’d always been there. “Being the girl who talks too much,” she said. “Not the one with the perfect smile.”
“You are the girl who talks too much,” I said. “When you’re with us.”
She smiled into the glass. “That’s the point.”
Luca’s phone buzzed. He killed it with a flick without looking down. I gave him a nod I didn’t want to give—we’ll check it later. He didn’t move. Good.
“I know it’s stupid,” she said. “But when I was little, I used to want a house that didn’t echo.”
“You’ll have one,” I said.
“And a couch that swallows you whole,” she added. “And a kitchen that doesn’t feel like a showroom. And a… and a window I don’t have to open to breathe.”
“You’ll have all of that,” Luca said.
“Will I?” she asked, and for once there wasn’t a test in it. Just a girl on a ship she didn’t know it was hers, asking for a thing she thought might be too much.
“Yes,” I said, and let the word be a vow.
“Tell me one thing you like about tonight,” she said, still facing the water.
