The office was quiet. Too quiet.
The kind of silence that pressed on your chest until breathing felt like effort.
The clock on the wall ticked somewhere behind me, but I didn’t move. My hands rested on the desk, the light from the city below bleeding into the glass walls, painting everything in gold and shadow.
Mia’s voice still echoed in my head.
“I can’t. Not until you’re honest with me.”
Honest.
The word cut deeper than she’d ever know.
Because honesty was the one thing I didn’t know how to give without destroying everything I’d built.
I dragged a hand through my hair, leaning back in my chair. I hadn’t been able to focus since the argument. I’d told myself I came here to work through a few reports, check on a new partnership, anything to clear my head. But the truth was simpler
