The objection did not sound like anger.That was what unsettled everyone most.Lillian waited until the shop quieted again, until Sofia stepped into the back room and Elena took a call outside. Only then did she turn fully toward Nathaniel, her posture composed, her voice level.“This cannot happen again,” she said.Nathaniel did not answer immediately. He leaned against the counter, hands flat against the wood, eyes fixed on a knot in the grain as if it might offer a defense.“I stopped escalation,” he said finally.“You replaced it,” Lillian replied. “And you did it in my name.”The bell chimed as a custome
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