Lucia did not scream.
She did not gasp or recoil when the image burned itself into her vision. She simply locked the screen and lifted her gaze, every emotion flattening into something colder, sharper, more precise.
Dominic watched the transformation happen in real time. He had seen fear before. He had caused it. He had survived it. What settled over Lucia now was something else entirely.
"That toy never leaves your residence," he said quietly.
"No," Lucia replied. "It doesn't."
Silence stretched between them, heavy and deliberate.
"They didn't take him," Dominic continued, choosing his words carefully. "If they had, you would already know."
Lucia nodded once. "This is a proximity threat. Psychological warfare."
"Yes," Dominic said. "They want you destabilized. Reactive."
Lucia's lips curved faintly, humorless. "Then they miscalculated."
