The click of the study door had been the last sound of the morning that mattered. After that, Mindy went straight back to her room. She did not slam the door.
She did not cry into a pillow. She did not walk circles like a trapped animal. She simply closed herself inside and sat with the truth.
The room was too clean, too calm, too expensive for the mess in her head. She stared out the window at Vane City and reminded herself of something important.
She had survived Rust Creek. She had survived Garrison Bay. She had survived being hunted. No rich man with secrets was going to break her now.
That was what she kept telling herself, even when the words felt weak. The first knock came about an hour later. Three solid taps. Heavy and even. Luke.
She knew his knock already. He did not spea
