Dominic
I told her it was nothing, and the lie sat heavy in my mouth the moment it left.
I watched her eyes linger on my knuckles, on the split skin and the swelling I hadn’t bothered to hide properly, and I felt that familiar tightening in my chest. I knew I was disappointing her but doing it anyway. She didn’t say anything at first, just nodded slowly like she was storing the information away for later. That was worse than shouting would have been.
I kept my voice calm. I said it was a confrontation with a rival executive, that things got out of hand, that it was settled now. I even added a small shrug, like it wasn’t worth discussing further, but she didn’t fully buy it. I could tell by the way her lips pressed together and how she avoided looking straight at me for too long.
The tr
