All Chapters of The Night I Can't remember : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

POV SOFIA I made it through the first week by pretending.It wasn't difficult. I had been pretending my whole life pretending my parents' coldness didn't hurt, pretending I was fine when I wasn't, pretending the quiet of my apartment felt like peace rather than loneliness. Adding one more thing to pretend about was simply a matter of practice.I went to work. I submitted reports. I smiled at the right moments and nodded at the right moments and performed the version of Sofia Brennan that the world expected to see.Nobody noticed anything.Nobody except Claire.She called every day. Sometimes twice. I picked up every time and told her I was fine and she said okay and I could hear in her voice that she didn't believe me and was choosing to wait rather than push.Claire always knew when to wait.By the second week the morning sickness arrived.I didn't recognize it for what it was at first. I told myself it was stress. Bad eating. The anxiety of carrying something I refused to look at

POV SOFIA I had prepared for every question.Or so I thought.Ethan Cole had other ideas.He stopped me four times during the presentation — not aggressively, not rudely, just with the quiet precision of a man who had heard every pitch and knew exactly where the weak points were before you finished your first sentence."The third quarter projection. You've assumed twelve percent market growth. Justify that."I justified it."Your competitor analysis. It doesn't account for the eastern expansion announced last quarter.""Yes it does." I clicked forward two slides. "Page fourteen. I addressed it here."He looked at page fourteen.He Said nothing.I kept going.By the time I reached the final slide the room had the particular quality of a space where something had just happened that people were still processing. I set the clicker down and looked across the table and waited.Ethan Cole was looking at me.Not at the screen. Not at his notes.At me.With an expression I couldn't read — unr

SOFIA POVHe still hadn't looked up.I had been standing in the middle of Ethan Cole's office for four minutes and he had not acknowledged my presence once.I looked at the bookshelves.Actual books — not decorative ones placed there to look impressive. The spines were worn in the way spines got worn when they had been opened repeatedly. Someone actually read these.I moved my eyes across the titles slowly.I had nowhere else to be."Ms Brennan."I looked away from the bookshelf.Ethan Cole was looking at me from behind his desk — finally — with an expression that gave away absolutely nothing. Not irritation at being kept waiting. Not acknowledgment that he had made me wait. Just — looking. The way he looked at everything. Like he was processing information and hadn't decided yet what to do with it."Mr Cole," I said.He gestured to the chair across from his desk.I crossed the office and sat down and set my notepad on my knee and looked at him with the same direct calm I brought into

SOFIAI got to the office at eight fifty-nine.I was supposed to be there at eight.The moment the elevator doors opened, I knew I was already in trouble.The office was busier than usual. People were moving between desks, phones were ringing, and the sound of conversations filled the floor.I lowered my head slightly and walked toward my desk, hoping I could make it there without attracting attention.It was a stupid hope.Ethan Cole was already in the office.I knew because his office door was open.And because I could see him through the glass wall, standing beside his desk with a file in his hand while Daniel spoke quietly to him.My stomach tightened.He had probably been there for a while.Of course he had.Ethan was never the kind of person who arrived late.I reached my desk and placed my bag down as quietly as possible.I sat.Opened my laptop.Pretended everything was normal.My hands didn't agree with the act.They were still slightly shaky.I stared at the screen and tried

SOFIAWe were barely out of the building when Ethan spoke.“Is this how you get close to men?”I turned to look at him.Daniel was driving, his eyes carefully fixed on the road, wearing the particular stillness of a man pretending very hard not to be listening.“Excuse me?”“The hug. The hand holding.” Ethan's voice was flat, almost bored—the way he said things when he wanted them to land harder by sounding like they cost him nothing. “Is that how you get close to men? Throw yourself at them in a meeting room?”I felt heat rise straight up my neck.“I wasn't throwing myself at anyone.”“Looked like it from where I was sitting.”“Well, you were wrong.” My voice came out sharper than I intended. “Besides…”The words left my mouth before I had fully decided to say them.“Do you expect me to throw myself at a woman? He's my boyfriend.”I heard the words leave my mouth and felt the regret arrive almost instantly, landing somewhere behind my ribs with a small, sick lurch.I had no idea why