Valentina POV
The silence between us felt different now.
It was no longer cautious.
It was calculating.
The photograph still lay on my desk, but neither of us looked at it.
Nikolai stood opposite me, his expression composed as ever, though I had begun to notice the smallest shifts in him: a tightening around his eyes, the slight tilt of his head when he was thinking, the way one hand rested casually in his pocket when he was forcing patience.
Most people would never notice those things.
I wasn’t most people.
I picked the photograph up again, turning it toward the light streaming through the windows.
“Let’s start over.”
He gave a single nod.
“Agreed.”
I walked toward the wall opposite my desk, where a large glass panel covered almost the entire space. It looked decorative to m
