LOGIN"Finish that sentence." My voice cut across hers. A beat passed. A shift crossed her eyes. Then she said it anyway. "Cleaned houses for people like us." The room went completely quiet. "My mother." I stopped. "Worked with her hands for people who believed that made her less than them. People exac
Alicia’s POV The pen was in my hand. I hadn't moved since the door closed. The page in front of me, the same line, and now I knew someone had been observing me return to it, watching long enough to count each return. I had spent three years believing he never saw the parts that weren't performed.
"He also mentioned Vera Sorel has made her attendance at the follow-up conditional on yours," I said, letting the other piece of the weight land between us. "He wanted me to know that." The pen halted in her hand. She took a breath, slow, through her nose, and the line of her throat moved once befo
Edward's POV Phillip arrived at twenty past ten. He settled into the chair across my desk and set his coat on the arm of it. The draft was already in his hand before he opened his mouth. "Signed and filed as of this morning. Your name on the minority position. Clean." He set a single folded page
"I don't know." "You said it to him. Not here." The pause that followed remained too long to be casual. "What are you afraid of?" I didn't rush it. "That I'm seeing it right. And it still falls apart anyway." She shook her head slightly. "That's not uncertainty. That's you refusing to close y
Alicia's POV Elena didn't turn when I came in. She was at the counter, spoon hovering over a bowl she hadn't touched in a while. The kettle had gone cold long enough to feel intentional. My bag hit the floor by the door. She didn't look at it. "You came back wrong." "I came back two days ago."
His lips moved. "...How long?" Low. Strained. Like the words cost more than they should have. "Since yesterday." He watched me. A beat longer than necessary. "You didn't go home." Not a question. Just a fact he had already arrived at before saying it aloud. "I stepped out a few times." I kept
Alicia's POV The engine settled into a rhythm I hadn't realized I’d been missing. For days now, every drive had been a frantic sprint toward the next crisis. This morning, there was only the envelope on the passenger seat, its corner tucked against the scuff on the leather I’d made last month. The
Edward's POV The panelling on the far wall ran in clean vertical lines from floor to ceiling. I had counted them twice already. The monitor registered everything in intervals. My shoulder was immobilized. My ribs announced themselves every time I breathed too deeply, which I had stopped doing some
Edward's POV The click of the door latch was the only warning. "You're going to rip it." Her voice. Low. No pity in it. I turned. She was there. Bag dropping from her shoulder, her hair a dark frame around a face I'd seen in my head for a week. She'd seen enough: the defeated angle of my should







