Chapter 30: The Ghost and the Lie
"Sofia is alive."
The words left Élise's mouth and fell into the silence of the penthouse like stones dropped into still, very deep water.
She watched Adriano's face as she said them. She had been watching his face for months now — learning the language of it, the way the Ice CEO mask worked, the tells that appeared when the man underneath was feeling something the CEO wasn't supposed to feel. She had watched it in boardrooms and vineyard ruins and hotel corridors and firelight. She had watched it last night when he had finally, completely, taken the mask off.
She had never seen it do what it did now.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
