CHAPTER 103
KATYA'S POV
The kitchen was too quiet.
Usually by now, Miss Stella would be humming some old Italian tune while barking orders at anyone who dared touch her counters.
Pots would have been clanging, knives chopping, the smell of veggies thick in the air. But this morning… nothing.
Just the light dripping of water from the faucet and the low sound of the fridge. I wiped down the counter for the third time, though it was already spotless.
My hands needed something to do — anything to distract from the silence crawling over me.
Where the hell was she?
Miss Stella never missed mornings. She was the kind of woman who showed up before sunrise and left after everyone else had gone to bed.
My mind drifted back to the early hours of this morning — her face in the elevator. That strange calm, the tightness around her eyes.
The way she looked at me like she did something I didn't want to find out.
