Eve had expected relief to feel louder.
She had expected it to arrive like a curtain dropping, finale done, cameras off, pressure released, the world moving on to the next headline that didn’t have her name inside it.
Instead, relief came quietly.
It came in the small things.
In waking up without dread sitting on her chest like a weight.
In hearing Camila humming in the kitchen, moving around Ryan’s home like warmth had always belonged there.
In Mitre arguing with the coffee machine as if it had personally offended him.
In Ryan being… present.
Not soft, Ryan didn’t know how to be soft in a way that didn’t look like strategy, but present enough that Eve could feel him in the room even when he wasn’t speaking.
The contest had ended. The show had survived the scandal. The audience ha
