Chapter 4 — Echoes of Paris

Third Person

Amélie tightened her grip on the leather strap of her bag as she stepped through the ivy-draped archway into the hidden garden on Île de la Cité. The city’s hum faded to a whisper behind her, replaced by the soothing trickle of the fountain at its center. The air was cool but carried the faint sweetness of blooming roses mingled with damp earth. It was a place she hadn’t visited in years, yet every detail felt achingly familiar, as though time itself had been suspended here.