The office felt colder that morning. Not because of the air-conditioning, but because her chest hadn’t unlocked since yesterday—since the moment her manager said the name she had spent months trying to bury.
Liam Voss.
She had slept badly, waking in pieces, heart knocking unevenly, mind dragging her back to that moment in the hallway when she’d bumped into him… and he’d looked at her with blank, polite confusion.
As if she was no one. As if their night had never existed. As if her children didn’t exist.
So yes. She walked into the office already unsteady, already somewhere else inside her own head.
The elevator opened with a soft ding and she stepped into the open-plan floor. Keyboards clicked. Phones buzzed. People laughed over something trivial.
The ordinary rhythm of corporate l
