Chapter 101 You Call This Aligned?

• The heavy oak door clicked shut with an almost apologetic sound—soft, but final. It left Rosie and Alistair suspended in the cavernous quiet of the meeting room like two characters abandoned mid-scene. Liam was gone. Just like that. One moment there, standing ramrod straight like some moody statue from a lost dynasty, and then... vanished, leaving only the echo of his words behind.
• "It has cost me a lot… far too much, in fact, for me not to see it through."
• The sentence looped in Rosie’s head like a scratch on an old record. She stared at the empty spot he had stood, blinking slowly, as if her eyes hadn’t quite caught up with reality. Her arms folded, then unfolded. Her breath came shallow. Then, without fully realizing it, she started pacing—sharp, deliberate steps, two strides left, pivot, two strides right. Pivot. Again.