DANTE
"I don't know," I whisper. "I don't know how to tell the difference anymore."
"Then let me help you." My mother's voice is soft. "Close your eyes. Picture your life in five years. Really picture it. Where are you? What are you doing? Who's beside you?"
I close my eyes.
Five years from now, I'm standing in this same penthouse. The city spreads out below me, glittering and cold. I've just closed another billion-dollar deal. The board is thrilled. Shareholders are happy. The empire is secure.
I turn to share the victory with someone.
And the penthouse is empty.
No one's there.
No one's ever there.
Just me and my success and my control and my walls.
The loneliness of it nearly breaks me.
I open my eyes to find my mother watching me.
"You saw it, didn't you?" she asks. "The li
