Rhodes is used to being heard. His voice fills rooms, his presence bends conversations. But when Laurette enters, everything shifts. She doesn't speak. She doesn't need to. Her silence is deliberate, and it undoes him.He watches her move through the crowd like she's untouched by it. Like she's somewhere else entirely. And he wants-desperately-to be wherever she is.She never looks his way. Not once. And yet, he feels seen in a way applause never gave him.He tells himself it's nothing. That he's imagining it. But the truth is, he's never wanted anything more than to matter to her.And she knows it.