Olivia woke in the dark, her breath shallow, her mouth dry as if regret itself had settled on her tongue. For a moment she lay still, eyes half-open, listening to the faint hum of the city beyond the glass walls. The clock on the bedside table glowed softly. Two in the morning. The kind of hour when the world slept deeply and truth pressed its weight upon anyone still awake.
Her head throbbed with a dull and stubborn ache. The remnants of wine and champagne clung to her senses like a fading storm. She blinked against the fog in her mind until shapes in the room sharpened, and then she noticed the unmistakable emptiness beside her.
Simon had not joined her.
Not even to lie beside her out of obligation. Not even to pretend this marriage was anything more than a quiet arrangement built fro
