Chapter 3
Elena looked up with tearful, fearful eyes, breathing heavily. The sheer weight of the moment pressed down on her chest, constricting her lungs. She could see her own reflection in the black glass of the camera lens—pale, exhausted, yet fiercely awake. Julian took a half-step closer, whispering something about contract breaches and financial penalties, but the words blurred together into background noise. Margaret sighed, a sound of profound, bureaucratic weariness, as if managing a captive was simply another tedious chore on an endless list. Elena’s hand drifted instinctively down to touch her stomach. The baby kicked, a sharp, sudden movement that felt like a tiny fist striking the inside of a drum. It was the only real thing in the room. Julian lowered the phone slightly, his brow furrowing as he checked the live comment stream scrolling past his thumb. "She's locking up," Julian muttered to Margaret. "The engagement metrics are dropping. We need to push her." Margaret nodded once, stepping back into Elena's line of sight with a fresh bottle of water.
