Julian stayed where he was after Lucian moved toward the kitchen.
He did not follow immediately. He stood there for a moment longer, letting the quiet settle back into the room, letting the pattern he had just traced sit where it was without trying to push it further.
The connections were still there. The timestamps, the gaps, the way everything aligned too cleanly to be dismissed as coincidence. None of it had shifted just because Lucian was standing a few feet away now, moving through the apartment like nothing had changed.
Julian turned and walked after him.
Lucian was at the counter, opening one of the cabinets, the movement unhurried, precise in the way everything about him was. He reached for a glass, set it down, and filled it with water without looking back.
Nothing in the scene suggested anything unusual.
Julian stopped a short distance away.
"You're staying," he said.
It wasn't a question.
