Ardis stayed seated long after the door had closed, her eyes lingering on the empty space where Ethan had stood only moments before.
The room itself was calm, as if nothing important had happened here, but her thoughts were already moving ahead.
She retraced every moment of the lesson and weighed what each detail might mean in the days to come.
Every step she planned now had two purposes—building his skills and building the resilience that would allow him to hold on to those skills when it mattered most. She would not leave either to chance.
She leaned back slightly, letting out a slow, measured breath. This was only the beginning, but beginnings carried weight, and she had no intention of wasting this one.
With the same steady focus she brought to every task, she gathered her notes into a neat stack, her fingers smoothing each page before she set them aside.
