The dance floor pulsed with flashing lights, bodies moving to the beat, laughter echoing, conversations drowning in the noise. Celina was there, physically present, dancing beside Gabriel, Zoe, and Arthur—but her mind was somewhere else. Her body swayed with the music, but her heart pounded to a rhythm of its own, restless, as if announcing that something was about to happen.

And then she felt it. A shiver ran down her spine like an electric current, and a familiar heat spread through her body as strong arms wrapped firmly around her waist from behind. Her heart, treacherous and unyielding, thundered inside her chest. The scent—that scent—was unmistakable. Woody, intoxicating, nostalgic. Her breath caught. She didn’t need to turn around to know. The heart never lies. The body remembers. Because love doesn’t ask permission—it simply claims its place.

She turned slowly, as if time itself had been suspended, as if she already knew her fate and had no choice but to accept it. And there he