Adrian
I left her room that morning feeling lighter than I had in months, some quiet certainty settling into place that had nothing to do with board meetings or legal strategies or any of the practical machinery I usually relied on to manage crisis. I found the others already gathered in the kitchen, and something in my expression must have given me away immediately, because Mason's eyebrows shot up the moment I walked in.
"Well," he said, grinning. "Somebody's had a good morning."
I didn't bother denying it, some part of me too settled and happy to manage the effort of pretending otherwise. "Becky and I talked last night. About the article, about everything. It went somewhere I didn't entirely expect."
"Good somewhere?" Caleb asked, though something in his careful neutrality told me h
