Chapter 83 Back From Where?

• “Caroline is back.”
• Just those three words. Flat. Unremarkable on paper. But in the stillness of the office, they fell like a heavy stone into water—quiet, but impossible to ignore. The ripples were immediate.
• Rosie didn’t move. She didn’t even blink at first. She sat perfectly still in the armchair, one leg tucked beneath her, her hands curled in her lap. She wasn’t cold, but her skin prickled anyway, as if her body had caught the temperature drop before her brain had. “Back,” she repeated, though not out loud. Her lips parted, then closed again. Her thoughts were sluggish, treacle-thick. Back from where? And—more pressingly—why now?