The hallway lights felt too bright.
Damian stood there for several seconds, unmoving, the leaked document still burned into his mind. His signature. His name. A decision he had never made yet could not deny belonged to him on paper.
The sterile white corridor stretched endlessly in both directions, too clean, too quiet, as if the hospital itself were pretending nothing irreversible had just happened behind the closed door.
Inside the room, Evelyn spoke quietly to the medical staff, her voice steady again. Controlled. Professional. The softness he had glimpsed only an hour earlier had vanished completely.
The Queen had returned.
He could hear it in the cadence of her tone. Calm instructions. No hesitation. No emotion leaking through the edges.
It felt worse than anger.
Anger meant he
