Chapter 5

Evelyn's POV

There were a lot in the hall.

I took a glass of champagne from a passing tray and moved through the crowd slowly. Smiled when I needed to. Nodded at faces I half recognized from the faculty corridor.

I didn't belong here. Not because anyone said it. Just because belonging felt a certain way and this wasn't it.

I was about to find a quiet corner when I heard my name.

"Professor Reed."

Elroy stood behind me in a tailored black suit looking like he had walked straight out of something that cost more than my monthly salary.

"You actually came," he said.

"It was strongly encouraged," I said without looking at him.

"You look different."

"Different."

"Less terrifying."

I took a slow sip of champagne. "Give it time."

He laughed. Low and genuine. It caught me off guard enough that I almost smiled back. Almost.

The band shifted into something slow and low. People were already moving toward the center of the room.

"Dance with me," he said.

"No."

"One dance. Harmless."

"No Vans."

"Unless you're afraid people will think you're human."

I placed my hand in his because arguing in the middle of a faculty event was worse than the alternative.

His hand settled at my waist, the right amount of distance. We began to move.

"You hate people like me," he said after a moment.

"I don't hate anyone."

"You called my presentation predictable before I finished the first slide."

"It was predictable."

"You graded my paper harder than anyone else's."

"Because I expect more from you."

Something moved in his expression. "Or because of my name." His voice stayed even. "I work part time at my father's company not because I have to but because I want to understand how things actually work. I read more than I sleep. I've never coasted on this name even though I could. But you decided what I was before I said a single word in your class."

I kept moving to the music.

"I think it's the same thing you hate when they do it to you" he said quietly.

I looked up at him then and for just a second forgot to keep my face arranged properly.

He saw it. I knew because something shifted in his eyes, brief and unguarded, before he looked away first.

The song ended.

I stepped back. "This conversation is over."

"It usually is," he said, "when I say something true."

---

My phone buzzed.

Unknown number.

It was a photo. The venue, taken from outside through one of the tall glass windows. Timestamp two minutes ago.

My stomach dropped.

Another message came before I could breathe.

*You look beautiful tonight.*

The room tilted.

I grabbed the edge of the nearest table and stood there trying to remember how breathing worked. He was here. In New York. Close enough to photograph me through a window.

The edges of my vision went soft and then the floor came up very fast and everything went away.

---

The first thing I felt was the sheets.

Too soft. Too smooth. The kind of fabric that had a name.

The ceiling above me was white and high with a crystal chandelier in the center that probably cost more than six months of my rent.

This was not my apartment.

I sat up too fast and the room swayed.

"Easy."

Elroy was in a chair beside the bed, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, a book in his lap he clearly hadn't been reading.

"You passed out," he said. "At the event."

"Where am I?"

"Our house." Like it was nothing. "My parents were there. We brought you here."

His mother appeared in the doorway. Elegant, unhurried, the kind of woman who had never once been caught off guard.

"You're awake." She took my hand in both of hers. "How are you feeling dear?"

"I'm so sorry I didn't mean to cause any trouble I can leave right now—"

"You'll do no such thing." Not harsh. Just certain.

"She's been trying to leave since she opened her eyes," Elroy said.

His mother looked at him. "Elroy."

"I'm just saying."

"Don't just say."

He closed the book.

I looked between them and felt something shift in my chest I wasn't going to examine right now.

His mother squeezed my hand and stood. "My husband would like a word when you're ready." Then she left.

The room went quiet.

"Even the air smells different here" I said without meaning to.

Elroy looked up. "Different how."

"Expensive."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I don't know yet."

He went back to his book. Neither of us said anything else and somehow that was fine.

---

His father came in twenty minutes later.

Tall. Measured. He shook my hand and asked how I was feeling and actually waited for the answer.

Then he sat down, folded his hands in his lap and looked at me with the kind of directness that made me sit up straighter without meaning to.

"I'll be honest with you Professor Reed" he said. "Because I think you're someone who prefers that."

I glanced at Elroy without planning to.

He was already watching me.

"We have a situation with our daughter Chloe."