Masuk~Amelia~Caleb called a meeting.He put a single sheet of paper on the table. Three bullet points. I'd learned that if Caleb needed a full page to explain something, the thing was very bad. One page meant it was just bad."Blake has found a partner," he stated.
~Amelia~Uncle Alan did the hug first.That was the thing about him, he always led with the hug, arms out before he even finished crossing the distance, like the physical contact was the priority and everything else came after. I'd loved that about him since I was small. He hugged like someone who understood that people needed it and wasn't embarrassed about that being true."You look tired," h
~Amelia~I kept it straightforward, what the alliance could look like going forward, why it was worth keeping even without the personal arrangement he'd come here expecting. By the end he said to send him a proposal and he'd read it."You did your homework," he complimented."I try to. My position here is new. I don't have the luxury of
~Amelia~I was in the garden when Caleb found me.I'd been out there for about twenty minutes with a cup of tea that had gone cold, sitting on the stone bench near the east wall where the morning sun hit longest and nobody usually came by. My hands weren't doing the tingling thing. I was just sitting there being a person who wasn't worried about anything for five consecutive minutes.Then Caleb
~Amelia~The first day after the letter, I told myself I was imagining it.Kaden was fine. He was present, he was functional, he did everything he was supposed to do. He answered messages, he sat through a briefing with Caleb, he made sure I ate dinner. Normal Kaden stuff. But there was this half-second lag to everything like a video where the audio is just slightly out of sync with the picture. Nothing you'd catch if you weren't paying attention. Nothing most people would even notice.
~Amelia~Eli came to the house that afternoon.He set up in the kitchen with his case of supplies open on the table, and I sat across from him while he checked me over the way he'd been doing every few days, taking my pulse, testing my reflexes, pressing two fingers against my wrist in that specific way that meant he was reading something I couldn't feel. He worked quietly. "Your energy is lou
AMELIA’S P.O.VMarjorie was silent on the other end of the call for a minute and I started to fear the worst. For a second, I thought she had hung up but I could hear her steady breathing and I knew she had just chosen not to respond.“Just tell me if I’m right or wrong,” I said when she wouldn’t resp
AMELIA’S P.O.VI planned to stay indoors for the rest of the day when I heard a knock. I went to check only to see Clara standing there with a small picnic basket in her hands and a smile on her face. When I looked down and saw her barefooted, I shook my head at her. I leaned against the doorframe wi
AMELIA’S P.O.VI ended up in front of the hospital. I took a detour home first and I made him lunch. I wasn’t sure if he had eaten but if I had to guess, I would have said no. Kaden tended to have a one track mind in the sense that once something became the object of his focus, it would take a lot to
KADEN’S P.O.VIt was shame that did not allow me return home to Amelia, shame that I had failed her, shame that I had somehow led her to believe that she was less important that she was. I didn’t know how to multitask, it wasn’t a skill I had learned very well growing up. I had been told to focus on







