Rue’s POV

The silence made the scratching of Iris’ pencil loud. The rhythmic sound was occasionally interrupted by frustrated sighs.

I looked up from the file I was reviewing and caught her nibbling the rubber end of the pencil, eyes fixed in concentration. It was like looking at a younger version of myself.

Suddenly, she looked up from her book “mommy?”

“Yeah” I pushed away my file and opened another

“When will Percy come again?”

For a moment, I wondered why recently her ...