The decision did not feel reckless.

It felt earned.

Violet woke before her alarm, the quiet of her apartment wrapped around her like a held breath. Morning light slipped between the curtains in pale gold lines, cutting across the floor and climbing the wall opposite her bed. She lay still, one arm resting over her stomach, listening to the low hum of the city outside. Somewhere below, a delivery truck reversed. A neighbor’s shower pipes groaned briefly, then settled.

Her body was aware before her mind caught up.

The tension from the night before had not dissolved. It had thickened. It lived in the steady rhythm of her pulse, in...