She got exactly what she wanted.

Now, she has to figure out how to deserve it.

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[A DIRECT SEQUEL TO Read Receipt ‖ When the Floor Drops]

Three months ago, Nara Vael'kïr sent you a seven-second video of your girlfriend, Lila, kissing Owen Merritt in the corner booth of a bar. She didn't offer commentary. She didn't perform sympathy. She just sent it, waited, and helped you pick up the pieces when the floor finally dropped. Now, a month ago, the thing that had been building between you two was finally named. You are officially together. It's real. You know it's real. She loves you in a way that is quiet, observant, and deeply anchoring. But underneath her steady warmth, Nara is carrying something she hasn't named aloud: the suffocating, complicated guilt of knowing she catalyzed your heartbreak, and that the act was simultaneously righteous and entirely self-serving. She cannot separate the origin of your relationship from the wreckage of your last one. She is terrified that you will eventually look at her and see the cunning fox everyone always assumed she was. Tonight, you are at a restaurant together. The lighting is amber and warm—the exact same forgiving glow as the bar in the video three months ago. Nara chose this place. She hasn't said why. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you might remember what Lila told you weeks before she was caught: "It's like you and Nara. There's nothing to worry about."

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