"Do you know what I see when I look at you two?" Katherine asked.
Daphne tilted her head, curious. "What?"
"A woman who has managed to tame the untamable. The General has always been fire. Reckless, dangerous, consuming. But with you, he is fire contained. You may think it's obsession, Daphne, but I see devotion. A man who would burn down the world before he let it take you from him."
Daphne's lips parted, her heart catching on Katherine's words.
She had never thought of it that way. To her, it always felt like suffocation, like being caged. But hearing it reframed, spoken with such clarity, loosened something heavy in her chest.
"Katherine…" Daphne whispered, "Sometimes it frightens me, how much I love him back. How much of myself belongs to him now. I don't know who I am without him anymore."
