The room fell quiet after Axel's question.
"Do you actually know anything about that girl?"
Lucas didn't answer immediately.
For a man who prided himself on precision, on preparation, on staying ten steps ahead of everyone else, the silence stretched longer than it should have. It hung in the air between them, heavy with unspoken admission.
Axel noticed, naturally. He had always possessed an uncanny ability to read the spaces between words.
Lucas's fingers, which had been resting lightly on the polished surface of his desk, stilled completely. His gaze drifted not toward Axel, but somewhere else entirely, somewhere inward, to a place he rarely allowed himself to visit.
For the first time that night, uncertainty flickered across his features. Then came the realization, creeping in like dawn through shuttered windows.
