Clerkenwell, London
January 25, 2025 — 10:07 a.m.
The radiator hummed softly beneath the window, holding the chill of the winter rain at bay behind the glass.
Eva sat curled in Liam’s office chair, her knees drawn to her chest, watching him revise his drawings. She should have been in her own apartment, but the rain had been torrential when she stepped outside, and his message arrived at precisely the right moment—Come to my office? There’s heat, coffee, and me.
So she came.
His office was not large, yet a floor-to-ceiling window occupied an entire wall. The pale gray daylight filtered through it, tracing the line of his profile in a muted rim of gold. He stood before the drafting table, his pencil gliding lightly across the paper, producing the faintest whisper of graphite against th
