All Chapters of EYES OPEN: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

I read the message four times.Each time it says the same thing.There is something you need to know about Derek that nobody has told you yet and it changes everything.I sit up in the dark with the phone in my hands and I think about Vivienne, calculating precise Vivienne who has not made a single unstrategic move in four years, sending me four raw unpolished sentences at three in the morning with no lawyer cc'd and no angle visible.Either this is her most sophisticated manipulation yet, or she is genuinely done.I slide out of bed carefully. Rhys shifts but does not wake. I pull on his shirt from the floor, the one that has apparently become my default garment in this apartment, and I go to the living room and sit in the dark and I type back.Me: Say what you need to say.I watch the screen.Three minutes pass.Then she starts typing and does not stop for a long time and when the message arrives, it is the longest thing she has ever sent me and I read every word of it without movin

Two weeks later everything looks different.I am living at Rhys's apartment, which stopped feeling temporary approximately forty eight hours after I arrived and now just feels like where I live. My things are in his space and his space has expanded around them naturally, no negotiation required, like the apartment always had room and was just waiting.Graham filed everything eight days ago.Martin Raymond's coordination is documented and submitted. Claire's statement is sworn and lodged. The civil lawsuit collapsed the day after filing, invalid jurisdiction, no licensed attorney, no foundation without the funding. Petra's publication retracted the Isla article within twenty four hours of receiving the legal notice and issued a correction so carefully worded it was practically a confession.Tasha retracted her statement.She sent me a message after. Long, careful, genuinely sorry. I read it once and put it away. Not yet. Maybe someday. Just... not yet.The journalist published my state

Vivienne calls Derek on a Tuesday.I know this because Derek tells me himself, which is both unexpected and evidence that the therapy is genuinely doing something.He calls me that evening, not to report, just because he has nobody else to process it with and Stanley is useless at this kind of conversation and his therapist charges by the hour."She wants to meet," he says. "She says she has things to say that she cannot say through lawyers.""What did you tell her?" I ask."I told her no," he says. "Then she reminded me she was pregnant for me."I sit down."Derek.""I know," he says. "I know exactly what it sounds like and I know exactly what it probably is and I said no anyway.""Good," I say firmly."She cried," he says. "On the phone. The real kind, not the kind she does when she wants something.""It does not matter what kind," I say. "If she is pregnant, that is a conversation for lawyers and doctors, not phone calls at night. You know that.""I know," he says. "I just... I fee

I have approximately ninety seconds to look like a person who has not been in pyjamas all morning.I make impressive use of them.By the time the elevator opens, I am in jeans and a clean top with my hair pulled back and my coffee replaced with a straight spine and the expression of a woman who was absolutely not just lying on a couch with her feet in a man's lap reading campaign briefs.Rhys's mother is nothing like Nora and exactly like her simultaneously.Margaret Callahan is tall, silver haired, with the kind of face that has spent seven decades being interested in everything around it. She walks into the apartment with the unhurried authority of a woman who has earned her opinions and is comfortable sharing them, and she stops when she sees me and does the full assessment in the time it takes most people to say hello."You must be Camille," she says."I must be," I say.Something approving moves across her face. She extends her hand and her grip is firm and brief and tells me eve

She is younger than I expected.Mid twenties, slight, with the careful composed energy of someone who has spent several years managing something alone and has learned to carry it without showing the weight. She is pretty in an understated way, dark circles under her eyes that concealer has not fully addressed, wearing a jacket that is good quality but older.She sits across from my desk and looks at me with the direct gaze of someone who practiced this on the drive over."I know this is unexpected," she says."It is," I agree. "But you are here so tell me why."She exhales. "Derek called me last week. About formalizing things legally. He was... different... from the last time we spoke. More present. Like something had shifted in him." She pauses. "He mentioned you. Not in detail but enough. He said you were the one who told him about Evan needing a father who shows up."I say nothing."I wanted to meet you," she says simply. "I know that probably sounds strange. You are his ex wife an