For several seconds… No one moved. Silence filled the apartment like smoke after an explosion. Heavy. Suffocating. Impossible to ignore.Ethan was the first to speak.“…What the hell was that?”Serena didn’t answer because Serena Blake who always had words, always had clarity, always had control had none.Vivienne’s voice echoed inside her mind with surgical precision.You’re not outside the system.You’re a corrective mechanism.No. No. That was manipulation. Classic destabilization strategy. Psychological framing.She knew these tactics. She had used softer versions of them herself but knowing a weapon existed didn’t stop it from cutting.Ethan stepped closer.“Serena.”Still no response.He touched her arm gently. She flinched not from him but from thought. That single reaction sent a flash of fear across Ethan’s face. Not fear of danger but fear of distance.“Talk to me,” he said quietly.Serena inhaled slowly. Too slowly like someone manually remembering how breathing worked.“Sh
Last Updated : 2026-02-21 Read more