Sorry, Counsel: My Heart Is Off the Record.

Aria pushed through the courthouse doors and walked straight toward him.Kai watched her come. He didn't run. He didn't retreat. He just stood on the steps with his hands in his pockets, like a man waiting for a sentence to be read."Explain," she said."Not here.""Here.""Aria." His eyes flicked past her shoulder. "The guard by the door works for Jaxon. So does the woman at the coffee cart."She almost laughed. "You're paranoid.""I'm careful. There's a difference."She held up the note. Her fingers trembled, and she hated that. "You wrote this.""Yes.""Why?"His jaw flexed. Those gray eyes searched her face like he was memorizing it."Because I didn't sign that memo."The street noise faded. A bus rumbled past. Somewhere, a horn blared.Her heart stopped, then restarted painfully."Don't," she whispered."Aria...""Six years, Kai. I held your signature in my hands. Your name. Your pen.""I know what it looked like.""It looked like you sold me for a partnership.""I know.""Then s

Kai stepped in front of her before she could blink."Jaxon." His voice was dangerously calm. "What are you doing here?""Protecting my investment." Jaxon strolled down the aisle, polished shoes tapping on concrete. "You looped the camera feed. Clever. Did you think I wouldn't notice my own system, Kai? I built it.""You followed us.""I didn't need to. I knew where you'd take her." Jaxon glanced at Aria and smiled. "Ten years with the man. He's very predictable when he's in love."Aria's skin went cold. She slid her hand into her pocket and found her phone. No bars. Of course there were no bars. Six floors underground, behind concrete and steel.Zoe's twenty minutes had just become the only clock that mattered."Where is the memo?" she demanded."Gone.""The box was full yesterday.""And now it's empty. Funny how that works." He lifted a small black remote and turned it lazily in his fingers. "It controls the fire doors. The ventilation. The lights. One click, and this room becomes ve

Harper did not open the envelope right away.She held it in both hands while the car rolled through the rain. The paper was soft at the corners. It smelled faintly of lavender and old drawers. It smelled like her mother's coat."Take your time," Dale said."Don't talk to me."He nodded and looked out the window.Her thumb found the flap. It was already loose, the glue long dried. Someone had opened this before. Someone had read it, sealed it again, and carried it across the city to her.She pulled out a single sheet.The handwriting hit her first. Slanted. Looped. The same hand that had signed every school form of her childhood. The same hand that had written "Eat something" on a sticky note and left it on the fridge, every single day, until the day she moved out.Her eyes blurred. She wiped them with the back of her wrist and read.My darling Harper,If you are holding this, then the worst has happened. I am so sorry. I wanted to be wrong.I am alive.The words sat on the page like a