The silence that followed wasn’t empty. It was full of everything that hadn’t been said at the table. Full of Jack’s too-careful posture and his reflexive apologies. Full of Evalyne’s own awareness that she had brought a stranger into her daughter’s orbit and then expected the universe to behave.
She stood first, because standing was easier than sitting with feelings.
“Come,” she said, voice steady. “My office.”
Jack’s chair scraped softly as he rose. He didn’t ask questions. He followed the way he’d followed at the club, at the hotel, in the car. Not submissive, exactly. More like someone who had learned that questions sometimes cost you.
Evalyne hated that she could see it.
Her office door shut with a quiet click that sounded final.
Inside, everything was as it always was: clean de
