Nobody spoke first.
Elena watched the room recalibrate around this new arrival, watched Adrian's face cycle through disbelief and recognition and something that looked almost like betrayal, though she couldn't tell yet whether it was aimed at Sofia or at himself for not seeing it sooner.
"You worked eight feet from my office," Adrian said finally. "For eight months."
"Seven, actually." Sofia stepped into the study, unhurried, her eyes moving briefly to the journal still open in Adrian's hands before returning to his face. "I started in January. I wanted to see how you operated before I decided whether you deserved to know I existed."
"And what did you decide?"
"I'm still deciding." She glanced at Elena, at Luca, something assessing in the look, cataloguing them the way Elena imagined
