* Jana *
Present day.....
The next day, the rain had lifted, but the clouds still hung low, thick, bruised with gray. I dressed with a deliberateness I hadn't felt in years, slipping into navy slacks, a cream blouse tucked neatly in, and a charcoal trench I kept open for movement. My hair was pulled back, tight and unforgiving. No part of me could afford to look soft. Not today.
Because today was the day I would see Lawrence Dankworth again.
I had rehearsed it a hundred times, the first meeting, the words I would say, the way I would enter Dankworth & Co. with my head held high and the past tucked neatly behind my shoulders like the silk lining of my coat. I was no longer a girl stumbling through the ruins of what happened in the past scandal. I was a woman now, sharpened by survival.
