Nicholas’s POV
I stared at the vial in my hand like it might bite me.
Pink liquid caught the sunlight and threw tiny sparks across my fingers. It looked harmless. Pretty, even. Like something a child would collect in a jar and call magic.
But it wasn’t magic.
It was a gamble.
Three years of searching—three years of marriage with Hazel thinking I hate her—and now this tiny bottle was supposed to fix everything?
I didn’t trust it.
“I don’t know,” I said quietly. My voice sounded hollow even to my own ears. “This feels too easy.”
Marco leaned against the bookshelf, arms crossed, watching me carefully.
“We’ve been looking for this segment for three years,” I went on. “Dead ends. False leads. Empty vaults. And now it just… shows up? One day I’m holding her through the heat, the next yo
