Elena's POV
"He turned up an hour later. Said he'd gone for air."
Ruth relayed the update the next morning with a flat, unconvinced tone that told me exactly how much she believed Victor's explanation, which was to say not at all. I didn't believe it either, though I had nothing concrete to offer beyond the same uneasy instinct that had kept me awake long after the gala ended.
"Air," Damian repeated, equally skeptical, standing at the window of his office with his arms crossed. "For an hour. In a three-piece suit."
"That's what he told security." Ruth set a stack of messages on the desk, her expression carefully neutral in the particular way it had been ever since the previous night's conversation in that quiet council room. "Make of it what you will."
I made of it exactly what they b
