Six days out, and the whole villa felt like it was holding its breath without knowing why.
Nobody said graduation out loud much anymore. It sat in the corner of every conversation instead, the thing everyone was circling without touching, the way you avoid a bruise on your own arm until you forget it's there and then knock it against a doorframe.
Isole spent most of that week buried in exam prep for a set of finals that didn't actually matter to her contract standing anymore, but she did the work anyway, meticulous as always, because that was just who she was. Vane caught her one evening staring at the same page for a long time without turning it, and when he asked if she was okay she just said "thinking" and left it at that. He didn't push.
