Morning came grey and still.
I was already in the kitchen when Damien came down. Earlier than usual. The kind of early that means sleep did not come back after the night did what it did.
He looked at me and I looked at him and neither of us mentioned the floor of Clara's studio or the hours we had sat there or the particular intimacy of two people keeping each other company in the dark without needing to explain why.
Some things did not need explaining.
He poured coffee.
I pushed the chair across from mine out with my foot.
He sat.
We were quiet for a moment. The kitchen doing its morning things around us. Light coming up slowly outside. The birds beginning. Mrs. Park not yet in the house.
Then he said, "The Ward family has filed a legal claim."
I looked at him.
"Against the busi
