Instead—
His expression hardened.
Not confusion. Not surprise.
Just... hard.
His jaw clenched.
A muscle ticked sharply in his cheek.
Once.
Then again.
He read the page without reacting outwardly, but something in him tightened.
Then—
Without warning—
He dropped the folder onto the side table.
The papers fluttered slightly as they settled, the sound too loud in the quiet room.
He stood.
“This... is what you think my time is worth?”
His voice was cold and cutting.
They landed like something final.
And then—
He turned and walked out.
No second glance.
The door swung shut behind him with a firm, decisive click that echoed through the room like a door being sealed on something irreversible.
My chest collapsed physically.
Like something inside me had just been ripped out.
“No—”
The word left my mouth on instinct.
I lunged for the folder, my hands shaking so badly the papers rattled as I grabbed them.
My fingers fumbled, trying to steady the pages as my eyes darted across the text.
I scanned the report, searching for something—anything.
Then I found it.
The line.
