CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN**SOPHIA**We flew back to Seattle on separate flights.My idea still, but this time it felt different. Not protection. Just logistics. The distinction mattered.He texted me from his gate. *Next time we're on the same flight.*I looked at that for a moment. The casual assumption of next time, of shared plans, of a future that included both of us in the same direction.*Yes,* I wrote back. Just that.Yuna had held everything together in my absence with the quiet competence I'd come to rely on. I spent Monday back in the gallery going through what I'd missed, the Paris negotiations with the Fontaine space, three new artist submissions, a funding proposal for the foundation that needed my signature before Friday.Normal work. Solid ground.Alexander called that evening. Not a text. An actual call, which he'd started doing more since London."My mother called again," he said."I know. She called me directly this time."A pause. "She called you?""She got my number fr
Last Updated : 2026-04-06 Read more