The meeting took place in a place neither of them truly owned.
Neutral ground.
A private conference room in a quiet legal firm downtown, its windows overlooking the gray river that cuts through the city like an old scar. No reporters. No corporate staff. Just silence thick enough to carry five years of unfinished words.
Evelyn arrived first.
She stood by the window, arms folded, watching slow-moving traffic crawl across the bridge below. The city looked calm from this height. Distant. Controlled.
Nothing like the chaos that had shaped the past five years of her life.
The door opened behind her.
She didn’t turn immediately.
But she knew who it was.
Damian stepped inside and closed the door quietly.
For a moment neither spoke.
The room felt smaller with him in it.
Five years ago,
