I found Ethan alone in the library the next morning, staring at a stack of his father's old business files spread across the long reading table, his coffee gone cold beside him. I softened my expression before I spoke, the way I always did when I needed something from him, arranging my face into the sympathetic mask I'd worn so many times it no longer felt like performance at all."You look exhausted," I said gently, sliding into the chair across from him, close enough that my perfume would reach him."I found out I have a six-year-old son yesterday, Madison." His voice was flat, his eyes not lifting from the papers. "Exhausted doesn't cover it."I reached over and touched his hand, careful, sympathetic, watching for any small flicker of the old warmth I used to be able to summon so easily. "I only want what's best for you. You know that."He pulled his hand back slightly, not enough to be rude, just enough to remind me of the distance between us now, a distance I hadn't felt from him
Last Updated : 2026-09-18 Read more