Happiness.
It wasn't something Catherine trusted easily anymore. Not after everything she had lived through, everything she had lost. Now she stood in a life that felt eerily similar, and yet completely different. Maximilian was here again. So was she. The threads of fate had woven them back together, but the pattern had changed.
Or at least… she hoped it had.
Her thoughts drifted to him without permission.
To the way he looked at her…To the quiet steadiness in his presence…To the way he had stood firm, not hesitating, not questioning, when it came to defending her.
And beneath all of that… To the fear.
Because loving him again meant risking everything again. It meant believing that this time would be different.
That he would be different.
That she would make different choices.
Catherine exhaled slowly, her gaze lowering for just a moment before she looked back at Sammy.
"I think…" she began, her voice softer now, stripped of its usual certainty, "I'm trying to be."
