Chapter Seventy-Two: The Loop Left Open

The estate had never felt this quiet.

Not when Lucien was home. Not when his presence moved through its corridors like thunder wrapped in silk. But now that he was gone, the silence clung to the walls, pressing in around Emilia as she moved slowly through the halls, two security men trailing her like shadows.

She didn’t acknowledge them. She didn’t need to.

She was used to being watched.

The air carried the faintest scent of cigar smoke and leather-bound power, Lucien’s office lay just ahead. The door was slightly ajar, the wood heavy and dark, a warning in its own right. It felt almost wrong to enter without him, but something tugged at her chest.

Curiosity or instinct, she couldn’t tell which was louder.

She slipped inside.

The guards stayed at the door, just as they were trained to do. Inside, the room was immaculate in its masculinity: shelves of law books, strategic maps on the walls, weapons displayed like art, and a massive desk that commanded the space like a throne.

She ran he