158Gianna’s POV
The office felt… empty.
Not in the literal sense—every cubicle was occupied, the hum of conversations and clicking keyboards filling the air—but something was missing. I couldn’t pinpoint it at first, brushing off the nagging sensation as a bad case of the Monday blues.
By the time lunch rolled around, though, it hit me. Matteo.
He hadn’t stopped by my office all morning. No casual comments, no sly smiles, no unsolicited but strangely helpful interventions. Nothing.
And for reasons I didn’t care to examine, I noticed.
I shouldn’t have, honestly. The man had been a thorn in my side for weeks, with his relentless determination to worm his way past my defenses. I couldn’t fire him as much as I’d thought about the idea countless times. Alaric brought him in. God knew how
