Andres's POV
The room changed the moment Gary said those words.
Nobody flipped a table or raised their voice above a controlled pitch. But I had worked with these people long enough to know what silence looked like when it was loaded, and right now, it was very, very loaded.
Every pair of eyes in that room bounced between Gary and me like they were watching a tennis match nobody wanted to referee.
I held Gary's gaze for exactly three seconds before I looked away. Not because I was backing down. But because I refused to give him the satisfaction of watching me react.
"You're taking her side," I said it flatly, not as a question.
"I am," he confirmed with a casual shrug, stepping further into the room as he owned it. Which he didn't. A detail he seemed to forget on a rotating schedule.
