All Chapters of RECKLESS DESIRES: THE ODEN LEGACY : Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

“Alright,” Dr. Reiner said, looking over his glasses at the two of them. “Tell me why you’re here.”Luke and Amiriam exchanged a glance, both sitting a little too stiffly on the leather couch in his office. The faint scent of coffee and paper filled the air, and the ticking of the small clock on the desk seemed louder than usual.Amiriam took a breath first. "Because we… I need to do it again. Properly this time."Luke nodded. "And because I'm sick of acting like I can do everything alone."Dr. Reiner sat back in his chair. "Good. That's a beginning. Now, tell me what's changed this time?"Luke rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm not here to win her back with gestures. I'm here to learn how not to lose her again."Amiriam's mouth curled—far from a smile, not quite the pinched scowl she'd been wearing, though. "And I'm not here to lecture him on what's been done. I'm here because I want to believe… that we're still possible."Dr. Reiner nodded, writing on his pad. "And James?"Amiriam's

"Wait—what are you doing?" Luke's voice came from behind her, laced with confusion.Amiriam did not look up. She sat at the desk, laptop open, flash drive Victor had given her plugged in. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, the cursor blinking beside the file name: For Amiriam."I'm deleting it," she said back to him, voice flat, calm.Luke stepped forward, the boards creaking under his feet. "You've only had it for two days. Don't you think you should—""No." Click, click. The file vanished from the screen with a small chime. She pulled out the flash drive, then unplugged it and placed it on the desk, flat.Luke stared at her. "Why?"She barely looked at him, her gaze hard. "Because her words don't deserve to be in our future."The air between them hung heavy for one beat.Luke shifted and braced against the doorway. "You think covering it up makes her go away?""I think keeping it here keeps her here," Amiriam said. "Every time I read it, I felt her. Her voice, her eyes, her. poi

"This is it," Amiriam declared, her voice carrying above the quiet buzz of conversation in the refurbished hall.Luke stood beside her, his hands plunged deep into the pockets of his coat. "It doesn't even look like the same place.""It's not," she replied, scanning the room. "It can't be. That's the point.".The building that once housed the Bloom Initiative had been gutted, scrubbed, and remade from the ground floor to the top. The heavy, dark drapes were gone. Light poured through the tall windows. The scents of fresh paint lingered in the air still, sharp and understated, mingling with the rich aroma of coffee perking in the back.Survivors and volunteers stood in a loose circle of people in the center of the room. They were there for the dying days of Bloom, having seen it crumble under the weight of betrayal, corruption, and fear. The wounds it had inflicted were still raw.Rita to the left of Amiriam, her arms folded but her eyes sparkling. Christiana towards the back, chatting

"Are you sure of that?" Luke asked, adjusting the mic stand in front of him.Rita smiled over the rim of her laptop. "I've only been talking about launching this podcast for… what? Two years? And I got you as my very first guest. You must be thrilled.""I am thrilled," Luke replied, sitting down in the chair. "Just… moderately terrified.""Good," Rita replied. "Means you're going to be real.".They sat in the newly renovated attic space of Rita's small apartment—a cozy, sunlit room lined with plush rugs, haphazardly-potted plants, and a hand-me-down desk topped with recording gear she'd splurged on. The podcast was called The Quiet Was Never Safe, and it was for women—and really, anyone—to listen to who had experienced abuse, coercion, and silencing.The concept was simple: honest interviews with advocates and survivors, no script, no pre-rehearsed responses. The intention was to create something that went beyond numbers and policy debate into the messy human landscape.Luke adjusted

"Luke, will you teach me how to spell 'someone'?"Luke glanced up from where he had stopped to secure a loose hinge on the kitchen cupboard door. James was reclining at the kitchen table, pencil poised between one hand, tongue thrust out in concentration. A notebook lay open in front of him, a few words scrawled across the top in big, sloppy letters."Okay," Luke answered, wiping his hands on a rag and walking over. "S-O-M-E-O-N-E. What about this one?"James hunched over protectively. "It's a surprise."Luke smiled. "A surprise for me?""Maybe," James smiled without looking up.By the time Luke had finished fixing the hinge and Amiriam had stopped by to drop off a bag of groceries, James was still at it—writing, erasing, and writing a third time. His small hand hurt every now and then, but he kept at it.Amiriam leaned forward to look at his shoulder. "Serious looking," she said.James smoothed the paper so that she could only see the top line: What Family Means to Me – Part Two."Wr