CHAPTER 110 — THE SHAPE OF CONSEQUENCE
Morning arrived with no ceremony.
No alarms rang. No urgent calls shattered the quiet. The estate woke the same way it always did—light filtering through glass, shadows shifting across marble floors, the distant hum of a city that never paused long enough to notice who was guiding it.
Yet Elena felt the difference immediately.
Pressure had weight.
It didn't rush. It settled.
She rose before the staff moved, dressed without assistance, and stood alone in the study where the walls held the echo of every decision made over the past months. The room no longer felt like a refuge. It felt like a proving ground.
Today would decide whether restraint could survive expectation.
By the time Adrian entered, Elena had already reviewed the overnight briefings. She hadn't annotated them. She hadn't reacted. She had simply absorbed.
"They didn't wait," Adrian said quietly.
Elena nodded. "They never do."
