Anna POV
Dorian came home at ten exactly.
I heard the key in the lock, the briefcase set down, the footsteps on the stairs. I had left food covered on the counter and come up to the bedroom at nine, and I was in bed with a book open in my lap when he came through the door.
He looked at me. "You're already in bed."
"Tired," I said. "It was a long day."
He nodded slowly, still looking at me, and then he sat on the edge of the bed and reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and held out a small jewelry box — dark velvet, the kind that comes from an actual jeweler and not an afterthought.
I looked at it for a moment before I took it.
Inside was a necklace. A thin gold chain with a small pendant, precise and understated, the kind of thing chosen rather than grabbed. I looked at it a
