Page 130 of Nikolai
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"You know what the best part is?" I said.
"What?"
"For the first time in my life, I'm not calculating the next move. Not planning contingencies or running probability assessments. I'm just here. In this moment. With you. And it's enough."
More than enough. It was everything.
Sophie leaned forward to kiss me. "That's called being happy, Kolya. That's called living."
Living.
Life was the game I'd truly won—not through seventeen-move planning or careful control, but through surrendering completely to the woman who'd taught me what winning actually meant.
Checkmate.
