"Goodbye, Lila."
Alex turned from her without another look. His footsteps echoed once against the wooden floor, deliberate and certain. Then, halfway through the doorway, he paused.
He turned back... not to her. Not to the mess on the floor or the trembling woman naked in defeat.
He looked up.
Straight at the smoke detector in the corner.
At the hidden camera.
At Sophia.
The air in the room changed. Heavy. Charged.
His voice broke the silence, calm but cold enough to scrape bone.
"I've been patient, Sophia," he said, his words measured like every syllable was sharpened steel. "Letting you think I'd forgotten you. Letting you think you were safe behind your little games."
He tilted his head, eyes locked to the lens.
"But I've been neglecting you for too long."
A pause. A faint curl of his lip.
"That ends soon."
The words weren't shouted. They didn't need to be. The quiet confidence was far worse.
Then he left.
