The night did not settle the way it should have, and even though the mansion stood heavily guarded with layered security at every point and movement tracked without gaps, there was no peace inside it anymore. What had happened earlier had cut too deep for calm to return so easily, and the attack was no longer something distant or imagined. It had come close enough to touch, close enough to leave a mark that refused to fade no matter how controlled everything looked on the surface. The silence inside the house felt different now, not restful but watchful, as if every wall had become aware that danger had found its way in once and could do so again.
