CHAPTER 108 — THE SHAPE OF RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility announced itself quietly.
Not with demands. Not with pressure. But with weight—the kind that settled into the chest and stayed there, unmoving, long after the urgency had passed. Elena felt it the moment she woke, before her eyes even opened, before the estate stirred around her.
This was different from the quiet war.
That silence had been sharp, deliberate, edged with tension. This one was broader, slower, almost solemn. The kind of quiet that followed decisions that could not be undone.
She rose without haste, moving through the familiar routine with a steadiness that surprised her. There was no need to armor herself this morning. No need to brace. The work ahead was not about resistance.
It was about direction.
