Casual Escalation

Dante

“You did what?”

The words came out sharper than I planned, cutting clean through the quiet of the room.

Vittoria didn’t flinch.

Didn’t even blink.

She stood across from me, calm as ever, one shoulder resting lightly against the dresser like we were discussing something as simple as dinner plans instead of… whatever the hell she had just casually dropped into my day.

“I handled it,” she said.