CHAPTER 269
ROMEO POV
Paperwork had a way of dulling the sharpest edges of a man. I signed my name for the third time on the same document, precise and controlled, the pen gliding smoothly over paper as if nothing in the world was wrong.
As if my thoughts weren't miles away from ink and contracts and quarterly numbers. As if six months of silence hadn't carved something restless and sharp into my chest.
I set the pen down, aligned the file perfectly with the stack beside it, and reached for the drawer beneath my desk.
The second one. The one that hadn't held office supplies in six months.
I slid it open slowly. Inside sat a single envelope. Plain. Thick. Unmarked. I pulled it out and emptied its contents onto the desk.
Photographs spilled across the polished wood, quiet and damning. Pieces of a life I no longer had any right to observe.
