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 I didn't remember most of the drive to Elena's. Just pieces of it. A red light I almost ran. A turn that came too fast and made the steering wheel slip through my hands. The way my vision kept blurring at the edges. By the time I pulled into the small lot beside her building, my hand
Edward’s POV The house was silent when I got home. Not the comfortable kind. The kind that pressed in from all sides. The halls stretched too long. The floors gleamed too brightly, reflecting nothing but me walking through them. Empty. Practiced. Hollow. It struck me now how much space she'd fill
I grabbed Elena's spare key from the counter and left. The street outside was busy. People moved past me without a second glance. No one recognized me. No one cared. It felt like freedom. I walked without direction at first. Just moved. The city felt different from this angle, smaller, more immed
Alicia's POV I didn't know how long I'd been lying there before the sound reached me. A door closing downstairs. Heavy. Final. Then footsteps. Not Elena's. My chest tightened before my brain caught up. I pushed myself upright. The room tilted. My body reminded me with every heartbeat what it had







