All Chapters of Everything Except You: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The mains arrived, the plates clattering onto the table in a blur of steam and rich sauce. For forty minutes, the air was entirely filled with the sound of forks scraping ceramic and Kenji getting yelled at for stealing Eric's potatoes. Then, the dinner rush began to fade. The restaurant's overhead lights thawed into a softer, dimmer amber, and the loud music from the bar downstairs dropped into a low, steady hum. Kenji leaned back in his seat, swirling the ice in his glass. He looked down at the empty chair at the very end of their table, the one the host had left there because the reservation count had been fluctuating all afternoon. The laughter at the table didn't stop abruptly, but it slowed down, thinning out until everyone was just watching the ice melt in their drinks. "She'd hate this restaurant," Lina said quietly, her pen finally resting flat against her notebook. "The lighting is too bright near the kitchen. She'd make us move within four minutes." "She'd tell the wait

The line went quiet for three full seconds. The defensive wit drained out of him, leaving only the raw, quiet gravity of a young lawyer realizing he had just crossed a major threshold. "I found the footnote," Alan said. "Good." Her voice dropped into a rare, microscopic trace of warmth. "Now find out what else Harrison has missed. That is your only job before we walk through those doors tomorrow." "And if I miss something?" he asked. "You won't," she said. She ended the call before he could answer. She sat up in the dark, her bare feet touching the cool floorboards as she stared at the silent phone in her palm. Alan had found the loophole on day twenty-two. She had found it on day one. She had kept quiet because knowing the answer was not the same as learning how to find it. He had passed. Zoya stood up, pulling her dark robe tight around her waist, and walked over to her desk. She flipped open the heavy leather binder, the white pages of the core case file glarin

Harrison nodded. He turned back to his notes. Raiyan turned his head back toward the aisle. Watching her sit down. The afternoon session started normally. Then it didn't. Zoya was three questions into her cross-examination when Harrison stood up. "Your Honor. If I may approach a procedural matter." The room stilled. Zoya's pen went flat against the paper. Her face did not change. "Counsel." The judge nodded. "The defense wishes to raise a matter regarding opposing counsel's conflict of interest disclosure." Harrison kept his voice measured, professional. "Ms. Al Fayez has positioned herself as a disinterested party. However, her prior personal connection to the Mansoor family, specifically, a prior marriage to Mr. Raiyan Al Mansoor, ended under circumstances the defense believes are directly relevant to Ms. Al Fayez's motivations in bringing this prosecution." The courtroom fell silent. The jury didn't move. Her eyes went straight to Raiyan. He was already looking at her. He

Raiyan told her on a Tuesday. Not a long conversation. He was at his desk. She was in the doorway. He said he was leaving LA with Liyana after the verdict and he needed someone to handle the Mansoor Corporation with Zayed. He said he had been watching her for months. He said Matthew would train her. He said she was ready. She said she was not ready. He looked at her the way he looked at things he had already decided. "Monday," he said. And went back to his file. That was the whole conversation. Monday arrived the way Mondays always arrived, without asking if she was prepared. Mansoor Corporation Headquarters office had a specific quality that Amirah had been pretending not to be intimidated by since she walked in. The floors. The light. The specific weight of a building that had her brother's name on it and expected things from everyone inside it. Matthew was already at his desk when she arrived. Mid thirties. Dark hair going slightly grey at the temples. He was reading some

“Uncle." "How is she." Not a greeting. Never a greeting. "She is working." Faiyaz kept his voice level. "That is not what I asked." "She is fine." "She is in the same room as that family." A heavy, deliberate pause followed, the specific silence of a man calculating his next chess move. "This was not the agreement, Faiyaz." Faiyaz remained quiet. "I let her go." Omar's voice tightened over the line. "Two and a half years ago. I stepped back. I gave her the space she asked for because you stood in front of me and promised me you would not let her go back to him. Because you told me you would be there." The control in the older man's tone was absolute, but the pressure underneath was suffocating. "I trusted you with my daughter." "She is not a piece of property that gets handed between people, Uncle." "I know that." A pause. "But you made me a promise." Faiyaz looked up at the ceiling of his childhood bedroom, the same plaster he had stared at for two and a half years during ev