Rowan noticed on day three.
He was precise about when because he was precise about most things, dates, patterns, the small inconsistencies in behavior that indicated something had changed in a system. He had built a company by being good at reading systems. People were systems too.
She was still sharp. Still, first to the kitchen. Still two sugars, no milk, still producing work in the board sessions that had earned her quiet, grudging respect from two non-executives who had arrived prepared to dismiss her. None of that had changed.
But the quality of her silence had.
He had spent four months cataloging the different kinds. There was a focused silence when she was following a thread, rapid, alive, she moved her pen faster in that one. There was a still silence when she found something s
