ITH MY BU

r 4 - T

RA

fter a warning, the moment I arrived, my manager called me into the ba

u here anymore,"

apron still half-tie

rs complained last night. Said there was tension, fighting, property damage." He

d painfully. "I d

now

I the one g

ud. Because I was easier to replace. Because nobody wanted to risk upsetting p

at. "Understood," I said quietly, because digni

ly, and I blinked hard against it, forcing the tears back

settling into my chest like sediment. Losing this job wasn't just bad... it was catastrophic. I already

ication immediately, unable to look at another overdue balance

universe had decided to add insult to injury. A bitter laugh almost escaped m

***

rived, exhaustion already sat heavy beneath my skin, but I forced myself to straighten befo

when I walked in

at." I sat careful

you alw

inst the window. For a moment I let myself simply sit there, without thinki

poke again. "You

't a qu

wn. "How di

sion your father used to

ut his disappearance like gossip instead of grief. Some called him a criminal. Oth

other one," I

reaching toward the small table beside t

etter with an unfamiliar seal pressed into

is t

she said. "It c

words at the top made my

Palace Employ

kind of joke," I said

is

he paper. "Why would the A

ssion...unreadable, flickering

your father

avily between us. "

That family owes more de

e me deeply uneasy, and the room sudden

o work there?"

you to s

ter in my chest. Working at Blackthorne Palace meant working directly under the most powerful w

t," I w

u c

hat school. You know ho

d yet you keep going b

orary. Living inside their territory, insid

st. Hospital bills. A lost job

g needing help from people who would gladly remind me I was beneath t

to decide today,

Yes, I did. Because survival

*

walked slowly toward the bus station, the folded employment letter still clutched tight in my hand, my mind replaying ev

approaching until a famil

ok mise

s tucked into the pockets of a dark jacket, looking somehow even more intim

inst my chest immediate

before returning to my face. "That dep

e off guard. "That's

ecome my busin

. I stepped around him and started

before his voice stopp

I turned back slowly.

't at the

't answer m

eed quietly.

chest. "Do you enjoy this

his expression - not guilt, exactly, but something close

r life to control it?" he asked, c

enough to keep fol

led thickly into the space between us again. "Yo

ean sc

my ter

could respond, his eyes dropped again toward the let

that?" h

ser against my

ow

N

could react, he reached forward

ide

nderstood what he was reading, everything about him

said im

, confuse

o mine, colder tha

ot workin