Chapter 188
Annalise
Morning came with the kind of silence that didn't feel peaceful. It was the silence that lingered in battlefields before the bloodshed. The quiet that wasn't rest, but restraint.
My eyes fluttered open slowly, the cold morning light streaming through the tall windows casting pale shadows across the stone walls. For a moment, I didn’t breathe—my hands moved to my belly before my thoughts could even form.
Still there.
My heart thudded, heavy and relieved. My baby was still with me.
Thank the gods.
A soft exhale trembled from my lips as I pressed my hand tighter to the small swell. The life growing inside me was the only warmth I had, the only innocence left in this twisted tale I now found myself in. They hadn’t taken it. Not yet.
But they would try.
I knew them
