The office buzzed with the usual Monday chaos, but to Sofia it all felt muted, like she was underwater while everyone else breathed air. The clacking keyboards, the ringing phones, the shuffle of paper, the chatter rising and falling across cubicles, all of it blurred into a single dull hum. She moved through it like a ghost trying not to disturb the living. Sleep had been impossible the night before. Her thoughts had run in frantic circles, looping through worst case scenarios until dawn pried her out of bed. She had braced herself for another week of silence from Tristan’s side, another week of being dismissed by people who treated her suffering like background noise.
Then Carrie called her in.
Sofia entered the editor in chief’s office with her usual careful posture, trying to appear
