Lahat ng Kabanata ng Addicted to His Rejected Mate: Kabanata 71 - Kabanata 80

[Killian]On the fourth morning, she doesn't flinch.I reach for my water cup. The same motion that triggered the warning sound two days ago. My hand enters the space between my chair and her bed, and Lulu's eyes track it the way they've been tracking everything I do since she woke up, that focused infant radar sweep. But her body stays loose. Her fingers keep their grip on the spoon. The sound doesn't come.It's nothing. A non-event. The absence of a flinch. It wouldn't register as significant to anyone who hasn't spent three days cataloguing every micro-

[Killian]The restaurant is called Atera. Seventeen tables. A six-week waiting list unless your last name moves things. The lighting is warm in a way that's been engineered to make skin look better and wine look deeper, and every surface whispers money without raising its voice.Victoria is already seated when I arrive. She's wearing something dark and precise, hair pulled back, a glass of Sancerre half-finished in front of her. She looks up when I approach and smiles. The smile is perfect. It's always perfect. Symmetrical, warm, calibrated to convey exactly the right amount of pleasure at my presence.

[Killian]The resignation letter is three sentences. I write it in the car.Liam reads it at a red light. He doesn't comment on the content. He comments on the grammar. "Second sentence is a fragment.""It stays.""Your call." He puts the letter back in the folder and pulls into traffic. "Board meeting's at two. If you submit before noon, the news breaks while they're still in the room. Conrad won't have time to spin it before the markets react."

[Sera]Lulu turns one on a Saturday in late January.The weather cooperates, which in Seattle means it only rains until noon and then produces a pale, apologetic sun that hangs around for a few hours like a guest who showed up late and is trying to make up for it.The party is small. Silas built her a chair. Not a high chair. A real chair, scaled to her size, sanded smooth, with her initials carved into the backrest in letters so clean they look printed. He presented it this morning without ceremony. Set it on the floor. Lulu walked to it, inspected it wit

[Killian]I woke up at 6:19.Not because of the alarm. I don't set alarms anymore. In the old life, my body ran on a schedule so tight that consciousness arrived at 5:45 every morning like a train pulling into a station. Now I just wake up when the dark thins out enough that my brain decides sleep is no longer a viable option.6:19. Forty-one minutes before seven.I lay on the cot in the back room of Voss & Grain, staring at the ceiling I'd painted myself. Badly. There w