After the last of them filed out, the room felt strangely hollow, as though all the tension they had carried in with them had been left behind, hanging in the air like an invisible weight. The door clicked shut, and for a moment, no one moved.
Then Elizabeth sank into the nearest chair.
It wasn’t graceful. It wasn’t composed. It was the kind of movement someone made when their strength finally gave out, even if only for a moment. Her shoulders slumped, her posture losing that sharp edge of authority she always carried. For the first time since I had met her, she didn’t look like someone in control.
She looked like someone barely holding herself together.
Vinie stepped forward instinctively, his hand reaching out toward her, hesitant but genuine.
“Don’t.”
Her voice cut through the roo
