"No," Chantel agreed. "You can't. But you also can't let him dictate terms because he's been here longer. That's the balance. And I believe that is what your father did, every day, for decades. Managing the egos and the histories and the competing interests. Making people feel heard without letting them feel in charge. It's a tightrope, and Mr Chen is just one of the many people you have to balance."Noah just sighed, feeling his shoulders slump tiredly."Sounds exhausting.""It is." She laughed, a short, surprised sound. "It really, really is. But you're not doing it alone. You have me. You have MS stane. You have Mrs lasing, who, whatever her complexities, genuinely wants to see you succeed. You have allies, Noah. More than you know."They reached his office. Chantel paused at the door, her hand on the frame, and turned back to look at him."I should go. You have that dinner with Evelyn tonight, and I have a mountain of paperwork that Mr Chen's tantrum just added to." She smiled, s

"Mr Noah." Her voice was flat. "You made it. I was beginning to think you'd decided I wasn't worth the drive."Noah felt his shoulders droop slightly at the venom in her tone but then he straightened, deciding that he was going to own up to his fucks up regardless of how angrier it would make her."I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long." He said as he stepped closer, drawing out the chair opposite her and taking a seat, not waiting for permission, before he met her gaze directly. The cushion on the chair was comfortable, because of course it was, and he settled into it with a conscious effort to appear relaxed. "I also lied about the traffic. I wasn't stuck. I forgot. Completely. The reservation, the time, all of it. It's been a very strange day. I had a confrontation with Michael Chen that involved me quoting a charter clause I didn't know I knew and him telling me, essentially, that I'm a child playing dress-up in my father's clothes, and by the time I remembered you existed

A while later, dinner ended. They lingered over their wine for a few more minutes and then parted at the restaurant's entrance with a handshake that felt oddly formal after two hours of conversation.Her grip was firm. It was brief and business-like with no lingering and no suggestion of anything beyond what it was.He stood for a moment there after she walked off, letting the cool air settle against his face, letting the warmth of the restaurant (the overindulgence of wine and, the strange as well as the sharp intimacy of Evelyn Lansing's attention) fade into something more manageable.She had taken the bigger bite out of him than he had her. He knew that. She'd extracted more from him than he'd managed to extract from her, and she'd done it with such elegant precision that he hadn't even felt the teeth until he was dead. Metaphorically speaking. That was a skill. A dangerous one, probably, in the wrong hands. But he couldn't bring himself to resent her for it. She'd been hones

 The morning light fell across Noah's desk in long, angular shafts, catching the edge of his coffee cup and turning the dark liquid inside to something that glowed like amber.  He'd been sitting in the same position for nearly twenty minutes, leaning back in his chair, his fingers loosely interlaced over his stomach, his eyes fixed on the middle distance where the city skyline met the pale autumn sky. The statement Michael Chen had made during their confrontation had lodged itself somewhere in his chest and refused to be dislodged.  "You've made a terrible first impression."  The words played on a loop, each repetition wearing a new groove in his thoughts.  Michael Chen, who had known his parents.  Who had sat at tables with James and Catherine Ashford before Noah was even born.  Who held decades

"Do you?" He pressed, feeling guilt roil in his gut, " Do you really understand this?” "Yes." She met his eyes, and there was something in her gaze that he hadn't seen before, a vulnerability, carefully contained but present.  "I don't understand what it's like to lose people and have nothing left of them but other people's memories. But I do understand the desperation of wanting to know something, anything, about where you came from. I understand, Noah. " She straightened in her chair, her composure returning. "So. What are you going to do?" Noah stood. He reached for his suit coat and shrugged it on, adjusting the collar with a practiced motion that would have been foreign to him three months ago. "I'm going to Michael Chen's office," he said. "Right now. And I'm going to apologize." Chantel rose as well, gathering her tablet