James POV
We sat in the small sitting room at the end of the hall.
Not the living room. Not my study. The room nobody really used, with the two armchairs angled toward a window that looked out over the back garden.
I didn't know why I'd steered us here instead of somewhere more neutral.
Maybe because it was the only room in this house that didn't have a history yet.
Rose sat across from me with her hands folded in her lap and her back straight in the way it always was when she was bracing for something. I'd learned to read that posture over six months. It meant she'd already decided to absorb whatever was coming and was just waiting for it to arrive.
"I'll start," I said.
She looked at me.
"I know you didn't go through with it," I said, "The procedure. I've known for a while."
She
