CHAPTER 103 — THE COST OF STANDING STILL
Morning arrived without ceremony.
No headlines screamed overnight revelations. No markets collapsed. No allies defected publicly. The world appeared, to anyone not looking closely, to have settled into its familiar rhythm.
Elena knew better.
Stillness, when sustained too long, always demanded payment.
She woke before the estate stirred, as she had for days now, her mind already moving through patterns and probabilities. The quiet war had entered its most dangerous phase—not escalation, but endurance. Whoever lost patience first would expose themselves, and exposure was fatal in conflicts like this.
She rose from bed and stood for a moment at the window, watching dawn bleed slowly into the sky. The estate grounds were immaculate, trimmed and ordered, giving no hint of the pressure tightening behind closed doors. Appearances, she had learned, were often the last refuge of those trying to maintain control.
