Novels by Edwin Soft

The first month after my resignation was harder than I expected.Not financially, I had savings, and freelance editing work trickled in. But emotionally, I was unmoored. For ten years, my identity had been "Professor Wolfe." Now I was just Alexis, unemployed and living with a college student.I tried writing. Started a novel about academia and forbidden love, then deleted it when it felt too self-indulgent. Pitched essays to literary magazines and got polite rejections.Dorian had summer classes. He'd leave in the morning while I was still in bed, come home to find me in the same spot on the couch, laptop open but blank."You're depressed," he said one evening, setting down groceries."I'm adjusting.""You're depressed. There's a difference." He sat beside me. "Have you left the apartment today?""I went to get coffee.""The coffee maker is ten feet away.""Outside coffee. At the cafe.""When?"I didn't answer.He sighed. "You need structure. Purpose. Something other than staring at a

My mother showed up at my dorm three days later.I opened the door to find her standing there, face tight with fury."Mom....."She slapped me.The crack echoed in the hallway. My cheek burned."How could you?" Her voice shook. "Julie is family. She trusted you. Loved you like a son.""Can we do this inside?" I glanced around. Students were staring.She pushed past me into the room. My roommate took one look and fled."Do you have any idea what you've done?" She paced, hands clenched. "Julie is devastated. Her marriage is destroyed. And for what? Some crush on your professor?""It's not a crush.""Oh, please. You're nineteen years old. You don't know what love is.""I know what I feel.""You feel infatuated. With a man twice your age. A married man. Your aunt's husband." She spun to face me. "What's wrong with you?""Nothing is wrong with me. I fell in love. It happens.""Not like this. Not with someone so inappropriate.""He's getting divorced. We're both adults. There's nothing inap

The meeting with the Dean was scheduled for Monday morning.I spent the weekend preparing—gathering emails, reviewing university policy, consulting with a lawyer Dorian had somehow convinced me to hire."Even if nothing happened, you need representation," she'd said. Miranda Chen, sharp-eyed and no-nonsense. "Universities panic over these situations. They'll want to make an example."She was right.Monday arrived too quickly. I dressed carefully, suit, tie, the armor of professionalism. Dorian wanted to come with me."Absolutely not," I said."I should be there. I'm involved.""Which is exactly why you can't be there. It looks worse if we show up together."He hated it, but he understood.The Dean's office was on the third floor of the administration building. I'd been there dozens of times for faculty meetings, budget discussions, tenure reviews. Never like this.Dean Morrison sat behind her desk, flanked by two people I didn't recognize. HR representatives, probably."Professor Wolf

I woke to Dorian's phone buzzing relentlessly on the nightstand.He groaned, reaching for it, then froze when he saw the screen. "Shit.""What?""Aunt Julie called my mom." He showed me the notifications. Twenty-three missed calls now. Dozens of texts. "My entire family knows."My stomach dropped. "What do the texts say?"He scrolled through, face paling. "That I seduced you. That I'm destroying your marriage. That I......" He stopped. "They're not nice.""Let me see."He handed me the phone. I read through the messages, each one worse than the last.How could you do this to Julie?He's MARRIED. What's wrong with you?You should be ashamed of yourself.Stay away from him or I'm calling the university."Jesus," I muttered."My mom's is the worst." He pointed to a paragraph-long text. "She says I'm disgusting. That I've always been selfish and now I'm proving it. That Julie is like a sister to her and I betrayed the whole family.""I'm sorry.""Don't be. This isn't your fault." He took

I drove home in a daze, Dorian's ultimatum echoing in my head.*One month.”The house was dark when I arrived. I crept upstairs, expecting Julie to be asleep.She was sitting up in bed, reading lamp on."Where were you?" she asked quietly.My heart stopped. "I went for a drive. Couldn't sleep.""At one in the morning?""I needed to clear my head."She set her book down. "Alexis, what's going on?""Nothing. I'm just..""Don't lie to me." Her voice was calm but firm. "You've been different for weeks. Distant. Distracted. You barely touch me anymore."Guilt crashed over me. "Julie….""Is there someone else?"The question hung in the air like smoke.I could lie. Should lie. But I was so tired of lying."It's complicated," I whispered.Her face crumpled. "Oh God.""Nothing has happened. I swear." Not technically a lie. "But I…." I sat on the edge of the bed. "I need to be honest with you.""About what?" Tears filled her eyes."About us. About how unhappy I've been."She flinched. "How long

I kept my promise.For three weeks, I didn't push. Didn't linger after class. Didn't text. Didn't show up at faculty events.I was the perfect, distant student.It was killing me.But if Alexis wanted space, I'd give him space. Maybe he needed time to realize what he was giving up. Or maybe he'd choose his dead marriage and I'd have to accept it.Either way, the ball was in his court now.In class, I sat in my usual seat and took notes. Participated when called on. Nothing more, nothing less. Professional. Polite.And I watched him fall apart.The dark circles under his eyes deepened. His lectures grew distracted. Once, he completely lost his train of thought mid-sentence and just stood there, staring at his notes like he'd never seen them before.He looked haunted.Good, the petty part of me thought. Suffer like I'm suffering.But mostly I just wanted to hold him.************Three weeks and four days after the coffee shop, my phone rang at midnight.Unknown number. But I knew."Hel

We got back to the apartment at eleven.Elena had left the gala early, something about an early meeting, but she'd hugged me at the door with a genuineness that made my chest tight in a good way. Derek and his wife had stayed until the end. Victoria Cross had circled back once more, talked to Kai for ten minutes about the merger while I spoke to a foundation board member, and left without incident.Brandon had sent no messages. His car hadn't appeared on any cameras near the West Village since Sunday. Derek said the restraining order serving had likely made him recalculate.I didn't trust the quiet but I was tired enough to accept it for one night.Kai loosened his tie in the elevator. I held my heels in one hand, having taken them off in the lobby because my feet had made their position clear."Victoria Cross is going to be a problem," I said.

Elena arrived Wednesday at six on the dot.She stood in the doorway of the West Village apartment with a bottle of wine and the expression of someone who had rehearsed an apology several times and was no longer confident in any version of it.Isla opened the door before I could."You must be Elena." She stepped back to let her in. "I'm glad you came early."Elena looked at her, then at me over her shoulder, then back at Isla. "You're not what I expected.""What did you expect?""Someone angrier." Elena held out the wine. "I told our father about the marriage. That's directly responsible for at least two of your worst days this week.""It is." Isla took the wine without softening it. "But Kai told me about your situation with your father. So I understand why you did it even if the timing was terrible." She nodded toward the k

The Crane meeting was at two o'clock Tuesday.Kai hadn't asked me to come. I showed up anyway, at one forty-five, in the lobby of Westbrook Hotels' corporate office with my portfolio under my arm because I'd come straight from the project site and hadn't had time to drop it.Derek saw me first. His expression did something complicated. "He didn't tell you to come.""No.""He's going to say something about it.""Probably." I smiled at the receptionist. "Can you let him know I'm here?"Kai appeared two minutes later. He looked at me, then at the portfolio, then back at me. "I didn't ask you to come.""I know. But Crane's argument is about our marriage. I'm your wife. It's a strange choice to leave me out of a meeting where someone challenges whether our marriage is real."He held my gaze for a moment. Then

The board meeting Monday afternoon lasted forty minutes.Thomas didn't show. He sent his lawyers instead, which was either a power move or an admission that he didn't have enough to fight the certificate directly. They raised the spirit of the clause argument, our lawyers dismantled it with the actual language of the document, and the meeting ended with the inheritance structure intact.Derek called it a clean win. I called it round one.Thomas never sent lawyers unless he was preparing something bigger.I got back to the apartment at three to find Isla on a call with her design team, standing at the kitchen counter with a pencil tucked behind her ear and a floor plan spread in front of her. She pointed at the coffee machine without looking up. I made two cups and left hers beside the floor plan.She mouthed thank you without breaking her sentence.

The hotel project had a Monday deadline for preliminary design concepts, which meant Sunday was spent at the kitchen table with my laptop, fabric swatches, and three different lighting catalogues spread across every surface Kai owned.He worked at the other end of the table. Laptop open, phone periodically buzzing, a coffee that had gone cold two hours ago sitting untouched beside him. We'd been in the same room for six hours and it hadn't been uncomfortable once, which was either a good sign or evidence that we were both very good at compartmentalizing."The lobby needs a focal point," I said, not really to him. "Something that reads as luxury without being obvious about it.""Custom installation," he said, without looking up from his screen. "I had one commissioned for the Prague property. Local artist, mixed metal and glass. It became the most photographed element in the building."I

We got back to the apartment at ten.Isla kicked off her shoes at the door and went straight to the kitchen, filling a glass of water like she needed something to do with her hands. The dinner had gone better than I'd prepared for, but better didn't mean easy. Marco's words were still sitting in my chest. *You both wasted a lot of time being noble.*"He'll be fine," Isla said, reading something in my silence."I know.""He just needs a few days to adjust.""I know that too." I loosened my tie. "He's not wrong though. I should have talked to him years ago.""Yes. You should have." She leaned against the counter. "But we're here now so.""So."She finished the water and set the glass down. "I'm going to bed. Early meeting with the design team tomorrow. I rescheduled everything from this morni