Chapter 19

• The office was alive with the hum of keyboards, the murmur of voices, and the faint buzz of the coffee machine. For Maya, the environment was a welcome reprieve from the stifling tension of Victor’s world. Here, at least, things seemed normal—until she met Elena Russo.
• Elena worked in the same department, and their interactions started casually enough: brief chats during coffee breaks, exchanging pleasantries in meetings, and bonding over shared frustrations about deadlines. But it didn’t take long for Maya to realize that Elena wasn’t just another colleague. There was a sharpness to her, a knowing look in her eyes that suggested she was far more than she appeared to be.
• One afternoon, as they both lingered over their lunch trays in the office cafeteria, Elena broke the ice with a surprising revelation.