2026-06-23 14:36:59
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Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty: PastPOV: ElenaHe's asleep.His head resting against my shoulder, his arm draped loosely across my waist, his breathing the steady, slow rhythm of a man with nothing left to hide from. I've been awake for forty minutes, watching the city lights move across the ceiling, and I can't take my eyes off of him.This is new. I've always been cautious about staring at things I want for too long.I'm lying here doing the one thing I've spent my entire life trying to avoid: feeling something I can't control. When he sleeps, his face resembles how it did years ago, before the Calders took their time with him. Somehow, younger. Unprotected. I stare at the faint mark where my mouth touched him earlier on the curve of his shoulder for a long time, trying to recall the precise moment I stopped being cautious.I believe I am aware. The lobby, I believe.I knew something had gone wrong when I got off that plane, crossed the hotel lobby, and embraced him in front of everyone—stranger
Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen: Rule BreakPOV: AlexI deliberately disregarded the rule."Respond in five minutes." One of Elena's earliest regulations and one of the few that had never changed to become more compassionate. I gazed at her message on the hotel nightstand: *How did the meeting go?* It was straightforward and everyday and could be answered in ten seconds. I set the phone face-down and walked away from it instead.The trip had taken me three states away, my first major assignment entirely without her. The meetings had gone well. Everything should have felt like a win. Instead I sat alone wondering whether what we had existed outside her rules at all or whether I'd simply gotten very good at obedience and mistaken it for something else.Ten minutes went by. Then thirty. I didn't respond, and she didn't send me another message. More than a warning, the silence unnerved me. I told myself it didn't matter by midnight. I was so exhausted by two that I had stopped checking and dozed off.Si
Chapter 18
Chapter 18: WirePOV: AlexI was halfway through going over tomorrow's presentation in my apartment after taking a shower when Sophia's name popped up on the screen. Without playing it, I nearly erased it. Rather, I took a seat on the bed's edge and hit play."Alex. Today, I filed. I felt you ought to be aware." Her voice was quieter than I remembered, and there was a pause. "I have no idea why I'm still phoning. Perhaps I wanted you to hear it directly from me rather than via a third party. I now have a better understanding of some things than I did before, but it's still not nearly enough. She exhaled deeply, as if surveying an empty space. "I hope you're content. That's what I meanThe message came to an end.After the recording ended, I sat for a moment with the phone. A tiny, stubborn part of me wanted to feel something for her. For the woman I had married, I thought I had already closed off, but hearing her sound so open and honest tugged at something in my chest.I allowed it t
Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen: FracturePOV: SophiaI waited three days before reaching out to Alex again. I wrote and erased messages during that period, convincing myself that if I said the right thing, Alex might eventually pay attention. The problem was that I no longer knew what was right and wrong. I used to. For years, I had known exactly how Alex would respond to everything I said. I hated how afraid I was of losing that assurance.I stood outside Elena's building shortly after noon. The glass tower loomed over the city like a monument to everything Alex had become since leaving our house. I forced myself inside my car after spending some time there.The receptionist recognised my name right away. That taught me more than I was interested in."I'd like to see Alex," I said."Do you have an appointment?""No.""I apologise, but Mr Mercer is not available at this time."Mr Mercer, not Alex. An authority. A title-holding man with whom people scheduled appointments."Can you tell him Sophia i
Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen: Velvet POV: AlexThe dress had a certain quality.By now, I had seen Elena in a hundred different outfits, I believed that just by entering a room, I could fully comprehend the range of effects she could have. I was wrong. I was still fighting my tie into something presentable at the mirror when she let herself in thirty minutes before we were supposed to leave. When I looked up and saw her reflection in the glass, I momentarily and totally forgot what I had been doing with my hands.The frustrating thing was that it wasn't revealing, even though she was already in it—deep velvet the color of wine that had been left in the glass for too long. It followed her, caught the light when she shifted her weight, and caused every part of my brain that wasn't focused on admiring her to become silent and ineffective. I watched her walk across the room with my tie half-knotted, and she clocked it right away, the way she clocked everything."You're staring.""I'm aware."She didn
Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen: DinnerPOV: SophiaI came dangerously close to calling off dinner three times.The first was when, at nine in the morning, my father called to ask if I had finally resolved the issue—not how are you sleeping orhow are you holding up, but whether the issue had been resolved, in the same manner that you would inquire about a leaky pipe or a quarterly goal that had been missed. The second was when Garrett sent three articles about divorce settlements via text before noon, along with the message, "Start thinking strategically." On the third, I stood in front of my closet an hour before everyone arrived and realized that I was dressing for people I no longer wanted to impress. I couldn't recall when I had stopped.Nevertheless, I set the table, light the candles, and arrange the delicious dishes.I was already worn out when they got there.Garrett sat across from me with his phone face-up next to his plate, and my father sat at the head of the table as if the house were hi
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