The heavy glass doors of the luxury Grand Regent Hotel lobby didn't just filter the morning light; they fractured it into cold, geometric shards across the polished cream marble. Outside, the remaining midsummer drizzle continued to paint the city streets in muted tones of slate grey, slicking the asphalt and grounding the high-society traffic. Inside the hotel's high-end, minimalist café, the atmosphere was suffocatingly quiet, insulated by thick acoustic paneling and the low, expensive hum of hidden ventilation.Elena sat cross-legged in a recessed leather booth near the back of the pavilion. She wore a sharp, structured ivory trench coat over a high-collared black silk blouse, her dark hair pulled back into a clinical, flawless ponytail that left the sharp, confident slope of her jaw entirely exposed. Her diagnostic tablet rested flat against the dark mahogany surface of the table, its screen dark-mode optimized, di
Last Updated : 2026-08-10 Read more