The second week of filming on Fractured Light was harder than the first.
Emma arrived on set at 5 AM, her body aching from yesterday's twelve-hour shoot, her mind still tangled in Maya's grief. Elena had pushed her hard… seven takes of the same scene, each one demanding more pain, more vulnerability, more truth.
Emma had given it. She always gave it.
But today was different. Today, she felt the weight of sixteen years pressing down on her chest.
"You're distracted," Elena said during a break, handing her a bottle of water.
"I'm tired."
"You're something else." Elena studied her face. "Is it the role? Is it hitting too close?"
Emma hesitated. She couldn't tell Elena the truth… that she knew exactly what it felt like to have someone steal your life, your identity, your future. That she had died and come back and was still trying to figure out who she was.
"I'm fine," Emma said. "Just a long week."
Elena nodded slowly. "Take fifteen minutes. Clear your head. We've got a big scene this afternoon."
Emma walked to her trailer, her feet dragging. She needed to call Nicholas. She needed to hear his voice, to remind herself that she wasn't alone.
She opened the trailer door and stopped.
The trailer was filled with flowers.
Not just flowers… an explosion of them. Roses, peonies, hydrangeas, lilies, every bloom she could name and a dozen she couldn't. They covered every surface: the small table, the makeup counter, the tiny couch. They lined the floor, stacked in vases and wrapped in paper, and spilled out of boxes.
In the center of it all, taking up most of the space, was an arrangement that looked like it had been designed by a mad genius. Roses in shades of deep red and pale pink spiraled upward, intertwined with white peonies and trailing greenery. It was massive, easily four feet tall, three feet wide. It looked like something from a royal wedding.
Emma stared at it, her mouth open.
A card was tucked into the flowers. She pulled it out.
"You're not just surviving. You're thriving. — N"
Her eyes filled with tears.
Her phone buzzed. She looked at the screen.
Nicholas: Did they arrive?
Emma laughed, wiping her eyes.
Emma: They arrived. You've lost your mind.
Nicholas: I prefer 'romantic.'
Emma: This is ridiculous. I can't even move in here.
Nicholas: Then come home. I'll clear a path.
She smiled at the phone, her heart so full it hurt. In her other life, no one had ever sent her flowers like this. Marcus had given her diamonds, cars, houses…; things that proved his wealth, not his love. But Nicholas? Nicholas had given her a trailer full of flowers because he knew she was tired and scared and needed to be reminded that someone saw her.
Emma: I have to finish the scene. But tonight?
Nicholas: Tonight, you're mine.
She tucked her phone into her pocket and looked at the flowers again. The makeup artist would have a fit trying to work around them. The crew would laugh. Elena would roll her eyes.
But Emma didn't care.
For the first time in a long time, she felt like someone worth fighting for.