Chapter 15 The Quiet That Cuts

• The office was quiet in a different way than Victor’s penthouse.
• There was no oppressive stillness here, no calculated silence meant to control the pace of her breath or the rhythm of her thoughts. Halden Strategic Advisory thrummed with soft activity, phones ringing in other rooms, the occasional clack of heels on polished stone, and the low hum of voices through thin glass walls. It was sound, but it didn’t touch her.
• Ivy sat at her assigned desk, a clean slate of walnut and chrome that faced a wall of angled glass. Outside, the skyline reflected pieces of itself, fragments of towers and clouds caught in the mirrored surface. She kept her eyes on the screen in front of her, scrolling through lines of numbers she didn’t need long to understand. The project was tedious, but not difficult. The challenge wasn’t the work.