Chapter 72

Nova’s POV

The office was quieter than normal.

Not in the still, fruitful manner, but in the thick, somber manner silence descends after a storm has made its mark. Following the Shari debacle, the air was electric.

Those who once whispered behind keyboards now made a point to make unnecessary eye contact a thing of the past.

People stopped speaking when I passed by their stations and where there had been wicked smirks or accusatory stares, there now existed cordial nods and obligatory acknowledgments.

It was not respect in its purest sense, but it was fear disguised as respect and for the time being, I had settled.

I sat at my desk, flipping through pages of the quarterly reports. My office was bathed in a harsh angle of sunlight, the brims of my desk hot against my forearms.

I didn't wear makeup, didn't wear jewelry, did not wear anything fancy, a cream shirt, and ironed navy pants, but the way people reacted to me now, you could imagine I was encased in armor.

Maybe I was.

My fin