The door clicked shut.
The silence that followed was sharp—too sharp. The kind that didn’t just echo, but pressed in from all sides.
Isabelle stood frozen in the middle of her office, staring at the door as if it might open again. As if Marcus might come back and undo what he’d just said.
But he wouldn’t.
She knew that.
His words still rang in her ears—clear, final, and unforgiving.
“I’m not going to wait around while you figure out what you already know.”
She didn’t sit. Not at first.
She just stood there.
Still in her heels. Still in her power suit. Still trying to be the woman who could hold it all together.
But her fingers were shaking. Her throat was tight. Her chest felt like it had caved in on itself.
And when she finally moved—when she sank onto the edge of the couch, sp
