Chapter 254 Tessa

• The third day of the siege felt like a slow burn. The silence of the estate was a weapon, designed to make the prisoner crave the voice of the jailer. Tessa refused to give in. She spent the morning in the library, not reading, but counting the security cameras tucked into the corners of the ceiling. There were twelve on the second floor alone. Every move she made was a data point in Roy’s private experiment.
• By evening, the air in the house had turned heavy. A storm was rolling in from the mountains, the sky a bruised purple that mirrored the tension in the dining hall. Roy was waiting for her by the fireplace, a bottle of wine already open on the table.
• "You’ve been quiet today," Roy said. He didn't look up from the flames. "No insults? No lectures on my failing emotional budget?"