Ethan was mid-sentence.
“…and with the revised margins, Blackwood Holdings would absorb the risk without...”
Then he felt it, not physically. Something deeper, pulled hard against his chest, like a hand closing around his heart and squeezing once.
He stopped speaking. The boardroom went silent, a dozen executives watching as Ethan Blackwood faltered for the first time in memory. Ethan blinked, once, then again, his breath shallow. There was no pain in his body. The pain wasn’t his.
Aurora.
The name surfaced with a jolt so sharp it made him grip the edge of the table. For weeks, no, longer than that, something had muted that name inside him, dulled to the point of irrelevance. He had seen her every day. Passed her in hallways and even heard her voice. Yet...It was as if he had been loo
