Chapter 55
Have You Prepared The Dowry Gifts?
Mother emerged from her room, the softness of sleep still clinging to her features.
"What is all this noise?"
Her voice was husky, dipped in drowsiness, yet carried that familiar quiet authority that had ruled our household for years.
She blinked once.
Twice.
Then her eyes flew open fully as they landed on the upright figure standing in the middle of our living room.
Dafa Halton.
Her gaze swept over him slowly, deliberately, starting from the polished black boots to the sharply pressed olive green uniform, up to the disciplined line of his shoulders and the calm, steady expression he wore.
"Dafa?" she said at last, her tone a blend of surprise and assessment. "You are… in uniform?"
She wasn't just seeing clothes.
She was studying the man inside them.
The controlled posture.
The quiet authority.
The way my hand rested securely in the crook of his arm, as though I belonged there.
