The silence that followed wasn’t structured anymore.
It wasn’t Luca controlling absence.
It was absence neither of them knew how to fill.
Elize looked away first.
Not avoidance.
Processing.
A recalibration of internal logic that had no immediate output.
Luca noticed.
Of course he did.
“You’re thinking differently now,” he said.
Elize didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
A pause.
“About what?” he asked.
That question wasn’t tactical anymore.
It was direct.
Unarmored.
Elize hesitated for the first time in a while.
Not emotionally.
But precisely.
Because the answer didn’t serve classification.
“It’s not about the system anymore,” she said finally.
Luca didn’t respond immediately.
Then—
“No,” he agreed quietly.
“It isn’t.”
Silence stretched again.
Not empty.
Undefined.
Then Luca
