**ELENA’S POV**
The silence on the other side of the study door feels too heavy to ignore. I stand there with my hand half lifted, unsure whether to knock again or walk away and pretend I did not hear the crack in Damian’s voice. The light beneath the door is thin, a narrow shape cut across the floor like a boundary neither of us has been able to cross.
I take a breath and lift my knuckles once more.
Before I can touch the door, it opens. Slowly. Cautiously. As if he needs time to reconstruct whatever mask he usually wears.
He stands framed in the doorway, taller than the shadows behind him, shoulders tense but face made neutral by force. Except his eyes. His eyes give him away. They look tired. Haunted. Like the world behind them is louder than he can silence.
For a moment, neither o
