She left at ten fifteen,
No dramatic exit. Just Margaux standing, smoothing her jacket with the automatic precision of someone whose hands knew what to do even when the rest of her didn't, and walking to the door and saying "I'll call you" and leaving before he could respond to that or anything else.
The door closed.
Stellan stood at the window for a long time after that.
Not thinking, exactly. More like waiting for his mind to catch up with what his body already understood, which was that something fundamental had just shifted and the person he had been before nine o'clock this morning was not quite the same person standing here now.
His mother had authorized the payment.
He had known that since Nia sat across from him and said your father did not act alone. He had known it and ha
