Elena woke before her alarm.
The flat was still dark. She lay there for a while listening to the thin traffic outside and the low hum of the fridge in the kitchen. Sleep had come in pieces. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Sophia’s face in the doorway, then Crowe’s polite smile across the conference table. Neither of them had done anything open enough to report beyond what she had already told Adrian. That was the problem. Everything stayed just inside the line of acceptable.
She got up, showered, and dressed without thinking too hard about the private terms. Continuity had become habit more than decision. The lace sat against her skin the way it had for days. She left the flat with her bag over her shoulder and the same low tightness in her chest that had been there since the comm
