David
I put my phone on airplane mode and tossed it onto the desk, irritation bubbling beneath the surface. Laura had been calling constantly since we returned from Kentucky. It wasn’t that I didn’t care—hadn’t I already spent weeks tangled in her family’s affairs? But now that we were back, I needed to focus on work. There were deadlines, clients, and mounting frustrations with my father’s schemes. Yet, she couldn’t seem to understand that.
The office door opened, and Evelyn stepped in, looking paler than usual. Her resemblance to Scarlet struck me like a punch to the gut. It wasn’t just her appearance—the cascade of red hair, the piercing blue eyes—but the vulnerability she carried, the same fragility I had tried to shield Scarlet from.
“I’m sorry to come unannounced,” she began, her
