Chapter 408: Sophie’s Worry

They watched as Sacha’s taxi drove away with a soft hum...

Stan stood on the road pavement a moment longer, hands in his pockets, watching the tail lights recede. Somewhere at the corner of his mouth, was a small easy smile.

Beside him, Camilla was not smiling. She was stiff, standing with the small precise stillness of a woman who had, a few seconds ago, been called ’my brother’s beloved’ by a laughing twenty-two-year-old and was, in her own private assessment, still recovering.

Stan glanced at her sideways. He knew better, he could tell that her emotions were in turmoil.

But he did it anyway, he couldn’t stop himself from teasing her...

"You’re awfully quiet." He asked with a smile as if he didn’t know why she was like this...

Camilla didn’t look at him as she replied with her face still expressionless...

"I have nothing to say."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Stan smiled, "Not even about being called my belov—"

Camilla stopped walking. She turned her head very slowly. Her red eyes settled on his face with the composure of a woman who could, if she chose, remove his tongue without breaking eye contact.

"Do you want to be left on this pavement."

Stan laughed as he immediately raised both hands.

"Alright, alright. I won’t mention it again."

"Wise." She resumed walking. They crossed the last stretch of the private drive in a small companionable silence.

After a few steps, quietly, almost to herself, Camilla muttered: "Your sister is troublesome."

Stan smiled. "She likes you."

Camilla’s stride broke, very slightly. "...She barely knows me."

"She doesn’t need long." Stan replied...

She did not answer. But he caught, in his peripheral vision, the small fractional lift at the corner of her mouth.

Stan noticed it but said nothing. ’Looks like Sis made quite a bit of progress with her.’

There had been a time when Sacha had regarded Camilla with nothing but cautious suspicion. Now she had hugged her, teased her, and even called her his beloved without hesitation.

And Camilla, despite all her usual reserve, had actually smiled back.

For some reason, the sight left a small warmth in his chest.

The doorman inclined his head.

Stan returned the nod.

Camilla’s red eyes flicked toward the man for the exact length of time required to register his presence, and then away, which was, by her standards, positively cordial.

They stepped into the lobby.

Stan glanced at Camilla, "You know, you could try smiling at people more often."

"I have no reason to."

"That sounds exhausting."

"It isn’t."

Stan chuckled. "Of course."

They reached the elevator. The doors opened, and the two stepped inside. As the small illuminated numbers began climbing, Camilla said, almost idly,

"She is very different from you."

"That’s one way to put it."

"She is lively."

"She’s always been lively."

A small pause hit them before she added,

"She is also very protective of you."

Stan’s expression softened, just a little, "She means a lot to me."

He said it in the small unhurried tone of a man stating an ordinary fact. He did not elaborate.

Camilla, who had learned by now to read the shape of the sentences he chose not to finish, did not press.

After a small quiet beat, she said: "I understand why you care about her."

"Yeah."

The elevator climbed on. Stan looked at the changing numbers for a moment before adding more lightly,

"And apparently, she’s now decided you’re part of the family whether you agreed to it or not."

Camilla gave him a slow sideways glance. "I noticed, Stan."

Stan smiled. "She probably won’t stop teasing you either."

"I don’t know the mentality of you humans, but I think I understand her, at least a little."

"Good luck..."

Camilla’s eyes narrowed slightly. "I don’t require luck."

Stan laughed, "Right. I forgot who I was talking to."

Just as the doors opened onto his floor, his phone suddenly rang.

He looked at it and saw the person calling him was Sophie.

Stan’s expression changed slightly.

He tapped answer. "Sophie?"

"Stan. Are you busy?"

"Not really. What’s up?"

A small pause on the other end. That, more than anything else, caught his attention.

Sophie did not hesitate. Sophie opened conversations with verdicts.

"What happened?"

"Nothing bad."

Another small pause. "There was something I forgot to tell you before I left after visiting you... It disturbed me a lot and was one of the reasons why I decided to visit you with Maya."

Stan’s brows drew together. "You forgot something?"

"Yeah." Her voice was quieter than usual.

"It was just a feeling, a premonition, premonitioms like this do happen but this was on another level, I’ve never felt this way before...."

He glanced sideways at Camilla. She met his eyes for a fraction of a second, immediately recognizing the change in his expression.

Then she wordlessly turned her face toward the window, giving him the courtesy of pretending very deliberately not to be listening.

Stan tapped his hand against the reader. The door clicked open. He walked inside.

"Alright," he said gently. "Tell me."

Camilla followed behind him. Sophie explained that not long after Stan had left for Antarctica, she had woken in the middle of the night.

Not from a dream or from a noise. Not from anything she could identify. Her heart had simply been hammering.

She had checked her phone. ’Nothing.’

She had checked the door. ’Locked.’

She had listened to the small ordinary sounds of Crown Jewel Tower at night, the ventilation, the faint hum of the city below, nothing unusual.

Nothing had happened around her. And yet she had been sitting up in the dark at three in the morning with her heart racing and one small, absolute, unshakeable certainty pressing against the inside of her chest.

Stan was hurt. She had not known where. She had not known how. Heck she didn’t know why she was feeling this way. She had simply, unambiguously, known.

"It wasn’t worry, Stan. I know what worry feels like, this isn’t it."

Her voice had the small careful was a bit shaky as she tried working through the description in real time.

"It was different, like it was on another level entirely. Something inside me was telling me you were in trouble."