Rafael occupied the armchair to the left, one elbow on the armrest, his chin resting on his fist. His expression hovered somewhere between bored and amused. He had the look of a man watching a play he had already read the ending of.
Lorian sat in the chair nearest the window. His jaw was tight. His fingers gripped the armrest.
Tatiana occupied the single sofa at the far end. She sat with her hands clasped together in her lap, her head slightly lowered, her eyes on the floor.
And Olga Romanov stood.
She stood because sitting felt like surrender. She stood because the words she was about to say required the full weight of her body behind them. She stood because after everything she had learned, after Cassian's revelations, after kneeling beside a daughter she could not claim, she had decided that silence was no longer something she could afford.
"If Tatiana does not want to marry into this family," Olga said, her voice was steady, "she has my full support."
