CHAPTER 15
Andrew didn’t anticipate the sudden intensity of it that night.
He had just slipped off his jacket, the fabric whispering against his skin as the penthouse’s oppressive quiet wrapped around him like a heavy, suffocating blanket, when the cough returned, sharp, unrelenting, clawing at his lungs with fiery insistence.
“Sit, Andrew, sit down,” Nancy commanded, her voice cutting through the haze as she moved with urgent grace, chair legs scraping softly on the polished floor.
“I’m fine, ” he protested hoarsely, but the words fractured into a violent bout of coughing that doubled him over, his vision blurring at the edges.
With determined ease, she guided him to the couch, her hand steady and warm on his arm, the cushions yielding beneath him like a reluctant embrace. “Just brea
