Aria's POV
I paused, blinking at the screen.
"What is it?"
Damian's expression was careful. Steady. The kind of careful he only got when he was trying not to set something off.
"Vanessa is here," he said. "At the summit. I didn't know until I was leaving the airport that night—she's here as a 'recording officer,' something the European side arranged."
For a second, that old ugly instinct flared hot under my ribs.
Then I looked at his face—open, unflinching, braced for the worst—and the heat drained back out.
"Okay," I said.
His brows drew together slightly. "Okay?"
"I believe you." I set the phone against the base of the lamp and stood, rolling the stiffness from my shoulders. "You told me first. That matters more than her being there."
Something in him ease
