POV: Julian Cross
Julian watched Iris sleep and understood he was lost.
It wasn't the realization itself that undid him. It was the recognition of how it had happened. Slowly. Through investigation. Through deception. Through forced proximity and shared danger. Through watching her process violation and choose survival anyway.
He'd married her to determine whether she was guilty. Now he couldn't imagine a life where she wasn't present.
If she left, something essential in him would collapse.
This was love. Not the kind built on choice or genuine beginning. But the kind that emerged from deception and mutual vulnerability and the terrible intimacy of two people trapped together by circumstance.
Julian left her room and went to his office. Called Victor.
"I need you to remove the external door locks," Julian said. "The ones that prevent Iris from leaving. I want her to have genuine autonomy."
"That compromises security," Victor said immediately.
