A'S

really softened. Manhattan pulsed outside, loud and dirty and alive but in here? In the backseat of this lux

ught it'd be too much to share a car with his rented wife. Or

he quiet. I liked knowing I had a few mo

e it had been designed by someone allergic to w

loomed above it all, a gle

e a castle. This place didn't pretend. It told you straight up-you didn't b

obby that smelled like money

vator had its own

blinked when I walked in, like women in designe

st. I needed longer to breathe o

stepping into a museum curated by someone

ly meant nothing. It was all too pristine, like

h the walls, in the bones of the place. You didn't walk i

be that'd help with the wa

ink abou

k about th

he nursery you neve

k about...

wed at the back of

it wasn't healing eit

–even gilded ones? They s

n, owned by a man I didn't trust, paid for with pie

cided to

going to be locked in here for the week playing hou

of appliances, just silence so deep it pressed against my ears.

offensively expensive. A vase stood next to it-delicate, probably antique. I c

otice? Wou

ittle attempts at meaning. Pretentious, like most men in power. They don't want to be

masculine trauma, and it made me feel... small. Like I was wandering th

saw it-

cou

door you're not supposed to open

around the knob and

from the o

here

a

like I was a puzzle he hadn't quite

never gave any of my clients a chance to. A small blemish near his jawline, a pim

n close enough to notice something like that. And

idn't move

her

, I'd be

hated

•

E'S

oor and found

re I expect

t me like she'd been caught picking a lock and di

eady?" I said,

d. "Didn't realize welcoming your

he's also defensiv

from fear but from instinct and whilst at it we didn't b

asked, nodding toward t

at should c

e truth, and

rd the soft click of her heels behind me. She lingered, the way someone

hing dry and biting about modern cath

n't r

n't n

quiet pressing between us li

did

at noon. You'll be photographed leaving this building. They'll be subtle affe

n, meeting h

oint appearances. You'll be styled according

just slightly. "Yo

an pr

role, Mr Kane. But let's be very clear-I'm not somethin

resistance.... Admiration, maybe. Or amusement

ost s

noted"

it

•

a's

ean, calculated stride of someon

Cal

ies and rehearsed affection. We were dis

a Cal

amn Ca

he name. I hated how it sat in my mout

space suddenly, like Manhattan ai

standing in this glass kingdom, with his voice echoing like a script I once

Callahan de

heir name

I wasn't the naive bride who clutched ultrasound pictures with trembli

on marble floors while he

mething

lder and very muc

tain would rise. My part was written

y call to redemption

s set for a performance t