Chapter 57

• I could tell the day would be trouble from the moment I opened the office door. There was a weight in the air, not loud or urgent, but thick and quiet, like something had been waiting patiently for us to notice.
• Julian was already inside, his sleeves rolled past his elbows, glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, and the morning light pooling across the table he had covered in contracts and spreadsheets. He didn’t look up when I walked in. His brow was tense, and his lips were pressed in a flat line. That silence he kept when he was trying not to worry me had become familiar, and this time I didn’t pretend not to notice.
• “What is it?” I asked, setting my phone down on the desk and easing out of my coat.