Chapter 41: The Edge of Control

I couldn’t send Zane the email. My finger didn’t move. Because a part of me didn’t want to tell Zane like this. And another part was afraid of what he would think of me. Perhaps he would assume that I was reaching, or worse, crazy.

So I deleted the draft, closed the laptop and sat in silence, watching the cursor blink in an empty document. No matter how much I wanted him to know, I needed to be the one to say it. To see his face, to explain everything, to answer his questions. To give him a reason to trust me again.

And, with the tension and distrust between us, I was terrified he’d never give me the chance.

##

The room felt like a tomb: silent, polished, and too pristine. I’d arrived early, spread out notes for the meeting with surgical precision, and repeated Leah’s pep talk like a mantra: Stay focused. Don’t rise to it. Be steel, not flame. But steel didn’t shiver. Steel didn’t have a heartbeat that pounded every time the doorknob turned. And when it finally opened, I nearly ju