By noon, the mansion felt different again.
Denise noticed it first in the staff.
Not what they did.
What they didn’t do.
No one spoke to her unless spoken to first.
No one met her eyes for longer than a second.
And whenever she entered a room, conversation didn’t just pause—
it reorganized.
Like she was a variable they hadn’t been trained to account for.
She walked through the east wing slowly, watching it happen.
A maid stepped aside too quickly.
A guard shifted his stance without looking at her.
A door that had always been open was now closed.
Not locked.
Just… denied.
Denise stopped in front of it.
“This is new,” she murmured.
Behind her, a voice answered immediately.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
She turned.
Liam stood at the end of the hall.
Still.
Watching h
