The sun had not yet risen when the Morano estate seemed to breathe differently.
Silence pressed on every corner, the kind of silence that carried secrets too heavy for dawn to shoulder.
Far from its iron gates, Lauren pressed his back against a cold stone wall.
His chest rose and fell in nervous breaths, his eyes darting like a thief who had learned too early that shadows were not always allies.
The guards on duty the night before had vanished, replaced by new faces men whose eyes lacked familiarity.
That was both fortune and danger.
He crouched low, waiting.
His heartbeat was loud, loud enough he feared it would echo against the walls.
Then, with a swallow of dry air, he slipped forward, slipping between shadows, stepping where silence was thickest.
His fingers brushed against the carved wood of the side door.
For the first time since his mission began, the lock yielded without resistance.
Finally, he was in.
