OLIVIA’S POV
I woke up still thinking about the message.
I had not deleted it. That told me something about where I had already landed on the decision even before I had consciously made it. I lay in bed with my phone above my face reading it again in the early morning light.
Woman to woman. No agendas.
I thought about Elena at the gala. The precise handshake. The smile that matched mine beat for beat because we were both performing the same thing for the same room full of people.
That Elena and this message did not feel like the same person.
Which was either because she was genuine.
Or because she was better at this than I had given her credit for.
I sat up slowly and looked at the screenshot I had taken the night before. Just in case. I had learned enough about living in this wor
