The spa hallway carried the faint murmur of water and distant voices—low, careful tones people used in places built for quiet. Matthew sat in the waiting lounge with one ankle resting over his knee, a magazine open in his hands that he hadn’t read for the last fifteen minutes.
The pages remained frozen beneath his fingers.
Across the room, candles burned in shallow glass bowls, their flames wavering each time someone passed through the corridor. A woman in a white robe drifted past with slow steps, her hair damp from the steam room.
Matthew barely noticed.
His attention lingered on the hallway Sophie had disappeared into almost an hour earlier.
The massage doors had closed softly behind her, leaving him alone with the quiet.
He shifted in the chair and glanced at his watch.
“You tak
