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."
Alicia's POV My foot didn’t land where I thought it would. The floor swayed. Or maybe I did. I was going down now. But before I hit it, A hand closed around my arm. Firm. Warm. Anchored. A man’s voice, deep, close, said something I couldn’t understand. The words were just shapes. Muffled. L
Edward's POV Saturday morning slid past the windshield in soft, washed-out colors. Gray sky. Muted buildings. Trees along the road held their pale green leaves, swaying gently in the quiet breeze, like reluctant witnesses. The world looked drained, as if it had absorbed something it didn’t want to
Alicia's POV I didn’t answer him. Not at first. I needed those few seconds to hold myself together. I recognized the script he’d walked in with—thirty seconds, one take, stand beside him—like everything I’d survived was just an inconvenience in the way of his world. Edward had stopped halfway int
Someone else appeared in my blurred line of sight, a woman with dark hair pinned back, wearing a museum badge. “Is she conscious?” she asked. “Barely,” the man carrying me said. “Call the ambulance. Now.” “I did. They’re close,” the woman said quickly. Her hand went to my forehead, cool, tremblin







