Naomi’s Pov

The escalation didn’t explode. It fractured.

That was the part I hadn’t expected. I’d braced for a collision, for a moment where everything came at once and forced a single, clean response. Instead, it splintered into pieces that cut from different angles, each small enough to deny, each sharp enough to draw blood.

I felt it before anyone said anything.

The building woke up tense. Not alert. Not cautious. Tense in the way people get when they know something has tipped and they’re pretending it hasn’t. Conversations stopped when I entered rooms, then resumed too quickly. Smiles stayed in place half a second too long. It was the...