Caspian's POV
Marissa's words reached me by noon.
That is the thing about an office. It’s a machine built to carry whispers, and a whisper that good travels faster than any memo I could send.
By the time it reached me it had grown legs and teeth, and three different people had heard three different versions, and every one of them ended with my name and her secret in the same breath.
I didn't raise my voice. I have never once had to.
I found Marissa in the small conference room on the east side, the one with no cameras, which she had chosen herself, which told me she already knew this conversation was coming and thought she was ready for it.
But she wasn't ready for it.
"Sit," I said.
She sat. She kept the small smile on her face, the one she wore like armour. "Mr. Strauss. If thi
