Serena lay on her bed long after the lights were off, the room lit only by the faint glow from the street outside. Sleep felt distant, like something meant for other people.

One hand rested on her stomach, her thumb moving in slow, unconscious circles. The baby had become her anchor, her comfort and sometimes, her greatest fear.

Her mind drifted, as it always did lately, to Roman.

His birthday.

Thirty years old in just a few days.

The thought twisted something in her chest. How could time keep moving when his life felt frozen in uncertainty? Somewhere out there — alive or dead she didn’t know, and that not...