Chapter 203

GIDEON

Paris didn’t look like itself tonight.

The city was supposed to glow — gold lights, soft rain, life humming even at midnight. But from where I sat, half-slumped in the backseat of a black sedan parked along the Seine, the world felt blurred. Like I was watching it through frosted glass.

The rain traced thin, meandering lines down the window. Each drop distorted the reflection of the stre