جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 20

Juno's POVI woke up in Ronan's bed, and he wasn't in it.The other side of the mattress was flat and cold. It was Saturday morning, a little after eight. Gray light came through a wall of tall windows, and beyond the glass the Manhattan Bridge crossed the sky, dark green in the gray light. For a few seconds I didn't know where I was. Then I remembered, and pulled the blanket to my chin.Nothing had happened last night.After the hearing, the whole company had packed the deal floor. Somebody brought cheap champagne in paper cups. Marcus made a speech that was mostly swearing. I held my notebook against my chest the entire time. On the courthouse steps I had taken it back out of Grant's hands, and he had let me. He had stood in the rain and watched me walk away with those four words.At midnight Ronan offered to drive me to the Marlowe. I fell asleep in his car before it left the curb. When I woke, we were parked outside an old factory building in DUMBO, and he was watching me from the

Juno's POV"Give that back."He didn't give it back. He lifted the lid and looked into the screen. The laptop had gone to sleep when I slammed it, and it woke on a gray box with my name above a blank line, waiting for a password. He stared at the box, and his thumb hovered over the trackpad. Marcus was still on the line, saying his name. Ronan said, "I'll call you back," and ended the call without looking at the phone."Who is Dee Okafor?""My best friend."I looked at the coffee soaking into the concrete, because it was easier than looking at him."We met on our first day of law school. She's a defense lawyer. Half of Brooklyn has her number. If she works for Ledger, she never told me."It was a good lie, and the best part came to me while I was saying it: it made Dee the link between me and Ledger, so Marcus had found a lawyer, not me."Two years ago, an email offered me this job out of nowhere. I never understood how Ledger found me." I lifted my eyes to his. "Now I think I do."Ron

Juno's POVThat Thursday evening, I brought Tatum up the four flights and locked the door behind us.She stood dripping on my pine floor and looked around at the bare walls, the stacked boxes, the single armchair."You don't have any furniture.""The movers left an hour ago. Sit down."She sat on the edge of the armchair with her handbag in her lap. I had unpacked exactly one mug. I filled it with tap water and handed it over, and she held it in both hands without drinking.She was twenty-six, and in every photo I had ever seen of her she was laughing. She wasn't laughing now."How did you find this place?""I followed your cab from the Everly." She wiped under one eye and made the mascara worse. "I followed you all afternoon. Then I sat on your steps for an hour trying to make myself ring the bell.""Why?""Because Sloane is going to sue you." It came out in one breath. "On Monday. Ellison Group against Sayer Capital, Ronan Sayer, and you. Except they don't know what to call you, so t

Juno's POV"Say that again," Ronan said.It was Thursday night. He set the grocery bag down on the top step. An orange rolled out, dropped one stair, and stopped against Grant's shoe.Grant still had a hand pressed to his cheek. My palm had left a print there, white at the edges and red in the middle. He lowered it and gave Ronan the look he saved for waiters who got his order wrong."I said ask her what she does at three in the morning.""She told you to go.""This is a private conversation, Sayer. Between me and my wife.""Ex-wife," I said.Neither of them turned. I was used to that.Ronan came down the hall at a walk. He didn't hurry, and Grant backed up until his shoulders met the wall beside my door.Grant's eyes dropped to the bag. An onion, a box of pasta, a bottle of red with the price sticker still on."Groceries." He laughed, and it sounded thick and drunk. "That's sweet. Do you know what you're buying? Did she tell you what she does for me? Night after night?"My fingers clo

Grant's POVBy three o'clock on Friday afternoon, my bottom lip had swollen into a hard purple lump, and the side of my face still burned where Juno's hand had landed."Fell on the stairs," I told my assistant."Of course, sir," she said, and looked at her screen.At four, I went to Park Avenue.The scan Tatum had texted me two weeks ago had a clinic name across the top: PARK AVENUE WOMEN'S IMAGING, DR. HELEN MARSH. I told myself I wanted to meet the doctor looking after my son. The truth was Tatum's face on Juno's stairs, and how she had stared at my arm instead of at me.The receptionist looked at my lip, then at the printout I held out."I'm sorry, sir. Dr. Marsh retired two years ago.""She hasn't seen a patient here?""Not since I started." She slid the page back. "Is something wrong with the picture?"I thanked her and walked out.Owen was holding the car door. He looked at my face, said nothing, and waited until we were moving."Sir. May I see the scan?"I passed my phone over