The Farewell That Became a Reckoning

For a moment, no one moved.

The room—so carefully prepared, glowing under warm light, filled with the scent of roasted meat and wine—felt suddenly cold. Suffocating.

Alexey stared at the documents as if they might disappear if he blinked hard enough.

“They… they’re not valid,” he stammered, his voice cracking in a way no one at the table had ever heard before. “You’re exaggerating. This is just—this is some kind of performance, right?”