By Thursday, the whispers had started.
Ivy noticed it first in small things. The way two coworkers stopped talking when she walked past the copy machine. The way Priya's smile turned extra sweet, the kind of sweet that usually meant trouble was coming. The way people's eyes lingered on her a beat too long in the elevator, like they were trying to solve a puzzle they thought they'd already figured out.
She didn't know how the rumor started. Maybe someone had seen her and Ronan leaving the office at different times but too close together. Maybe someone had noticed the way he looked at her during meetings, a look he usually kept carefully hidden behind his professional mask. Whatever the reason, by lunchtime, it felt like half the strategy floor already knew something, even if nobody said i
