Chapter 99 — A Mask of Sunshine
Lucian
The glass of my office reflected a man everyone in the room expected to see: composed, precise, the sort of calm that made people lean forward in meetings and believe in plans as if they were inevitable. The city spread beyond the glass like a circuit board of light and movement. Below it, systems hummed a thousand small things making everything operate and in my chest a single, steady drumbeat drowned them all out: Rina.
I didn't realize how long I'd been standing until the chair behind my desk creaked, and Silas's voice, quiet and efficient, filled the room.
"You've been staring for twenty minutes," he said without judgement. He never judged me. He cataloged and solved. That was his thing. "Report at eleven in twenty. Do you want me to push it?"
"No." I turned away from the window and forced the briefest of smiles. "Let it be. They'll appreciate the punctuality more than the absence."
