After Midnight With Him
Even from this distance, even in the poor light, I recognized the posture immediately—the same unhurried, contained stillness that had filled his office earlier that morning, the same quiet authority that had somehow made me feel smaller standing across from his desk than I'd ever felt in my life.
Damien Blackwood. He hadn't come to the door. He hadn't announced himself, hadn't interrupted a single moment of what had just happened on that porch. He'd simply stood there, across the street, in the dark, watching the whole thing unfold—my begging, my collapse, the door closing on everything I'd ever wanted.
And from the look on his face, even at this distance, I understood with a sick, sinking