COLIN’S POV
I shouldn’t be here, I know that the second I step into her office, the air already too still, too controlled, like even the space bends around her, and something in my chest tightens before she even looks at me, and damn, I hate that feeling.
It’s the kind of place that doesn’t just sit quiet, it watches, it measures, like every move you make is already expected, already accounted for, and I feel it the moment the door shuts behind me, that familiar pressure settling in my chest like I’ve just walked into something I can’t fully control.
“Colin,” my mother says smoothly, not surprised, not even slightly, like she’s been expecting this, like she always does.
She always knows when something is coming before anyone else does, and that alone irritates me more than it should, b
