Chapter 152 Chapter 152

Chapter 152 Chapter 152
Aurelia

I swallowed slightly. “Thanks.” Another beat of silence settled between us, but it felt lighter. Like we’d both finally reached the end of something difficult, not dramatic, just long.
“We barely saw each other,” I said quietly.
“I know," he said.
“We still made it.”

There was another pause. Then he answered. “Yes.” Simple and certain, and somehow that felt more meaningful than some giant emotional speech ever could’ve because he meant it. We made it through this phase. Not perfectly. Not romantically. Not effortlessly. But together.

Talon

By the end of second semester, everything blurred together. Cities, meetings, and flight schedules. Entire conversations started feeling identical after a while.
The only reason I even knew what day it was half the time came from checking timing against active obligations. Nico noticed it before I did.
“You’ve been running on four hours of sleep for like two weeks,” he said while we walked through another office building.
“Closer to five,” I corrected.

“That’s not better," he said.
“It’s functional.”

He gave me a look. “You’re becoming your father," he said.
“I’ll survive.” 

“That’s what worries me," he replied. I ignored that mostly because there wasn’t time to unpack philosophical commentary in the middle of twelve-hour workdays.
Everything has moved fast lately. Faster than usual And somewhere inside all of it, Aurelia and I had shifted into a different rhythm entirely. Less communication, less presence. More understanding: It wasn’t emotional distance. It was structural adaptation.

We both had priorities demanding attention now, and neither of us was asking the other person to shrink theirs. That mattered more than people realize. I checked my phone between meetings. No new messages yet Which made sense. Her final exams were today. I already knew the schedule. Because I made sure to check
Nico glanced at me while we waited outside another conference room. "Is she finishing today?" he asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to call her?” he asked. 
“Yes.”

He nodded once like he expected that answer because he did. Hours later, after another meeting ended, I finally stepped outside long enough to make the call. She answered immediately. That told me enough already.

She was done with exams and probably exhausted. Her voice confirmed it; she was tired but lighter. That difference matters.
When she said she thought she blacked out halfway through the exam, I smiled. I just said, “You passed then.”
Because she works harder than she gives herself credit for.

That’s been obvious since the first day she walked into BlackThorn Academy and questioned the teacher. The conversation stayed simple. No dramatic emotional catch-up No overcompensation for distance Just grounding, checking in, and reestablishing connection after weeks of parallel exhaustion.
When she said we barely saw each other, I paused slightly.

Because she was right We didn’t, but there was no accusation in her voice. Just acknowledgment, and that changed the meaning completely. We made it. That’s what mattered. Not perfect proximity, not constant communication. Endurance Consistency Continuation.
As the call ended, I leaned briefly against the railing outside the building, city lights below. Traffic moving endlessly, my phone still in my hand. And for the first time in weeks, everything felt slightly quieter internally. Not solved, not finished. Just steadier, we got through this part. Now we could finally breathe again.

Aurelia

The second I finished packing my dorm room, I left Maylan. Not dramatically or emotionally. I just threw my bag into the backseat, said bye to Dani while she was still half asleep, and started the drive toward Silverridge with an iced coffee and absolutely no functioning brain cells left after finals.
Honestly, the entire drive felt weirdly peaceful. For the first time in months, I didn’t have an assignment waiting for me. No exam hanging over my head. No discussion board due at midnight. Nothing.

My body genuinely didn’t know how to process free time anymore. I rolled the windows down halfway while driving and let the air hit my face. It felt good and light. Like I could finally breathe again.

Talon knew I was coming, obviously, but he was still working; that part wasn’t surprising anymore. He’d texted me earlier that morning.
still in meetings. home late.” That was it. Classic Talon. Still, somehow, that tiny message was enough because I already knew where I was going. Not visiting. Going.
That difference hit me harder the closer I got to the Blackwell estate. The gates opened almost immediately when my car pulled up now. There was no awkward pause and no checking.

The security guard near the entrance literally nodded at me like he saw me every week. Which honestly… He kind of did at this point. I parked near the front entrance and grabbed my bag. Before I even reached the door, one of the staff members opened it with a warm smile.
“Welcome back, Miss Aurelia.” Back. Not welcome. Welcome back. And weirdly enough, that tiny wording change made something shift quietly in my chest. “Thanks,” I said with a small smile.

I stepped inside and immediately relaxed. Not because the house changed. Because my relationship to it had. The first few times I came here, everything felt huge and intimidating. Now it just felt familiar. The marble floors. The quiet atmosphere. The soft lighting.
The distant sound of staff moving around somewhere deeper in the house. It no longer felt like stepping into somebody else’s world carefully. It just felt… normal. Well. Normal for billionaire people, I guess. I had barely set my bag down when I heard footsteps running.

“AURELIA.” And then Amy launched herself at me like an emotionally unstable missile. I laughed immediately as she hugged me hard enough to nearly knock me backward.
“Oh my God,” she said dramatically. “You look dead.”
“That’s because finals almost killed me.”

She pulled back just enough to stare at me. “You survived though," she said. 
“Barely.”

She grabbed my hand instantly. “Come upstairs. I need updates. Everything. Right now," she said. I laughed while letting her drag me through the house. Honestly, seeing Amy again felt easy in the best way. No tension, no awkwardness. Just familiarity.

She talked the entire way upstairs. Apparently she’d started fighting with Talon again because he ignored her calls for almost two days during some work thing.
“He acts like a government agent,” she complained.
“That’s actually accurate,” I admitted.
“Right?” she said. 

We ended up in the kitchen about twenty minutes later eating snacks while she aggressively filled me in on random family gossip I absolutely did not need but enjoyed anyway. At some point Talon’s mother walked in. And for half a second my old instincts kicked in.
That tiny awareness. That carefulness. But it disappeared almost immediately when she smiled warmly at me. “Aurelia,” she said. “You’re finally done with exams.”

“I am.”
“You look exhausted," she said. 
“I feel exhausted," I replied, and that made her laugh softly.

“Well, you’re staying here long enough to recover properly.” She said 
Not asking, not formal Just natural, like it was already expected. And that feeling hit again, not as expected. Amy pointed at me dramatically. “Tell Talon she almost died academically.”