a's

the corridors,

- on his instruction, obviously, since that was what all the urgency had been about... The emergency. The 'q

an t

his voice back to its usual composed authority now that the

ing just close enough to see every detail and just far enough that I could st

I didn't t

f I didn't know better. More like a good deed and maybe an

n better for a long time now, even when

the wheelcha

iage, even after five years of me standing in the same house with him and trying to be whatever it was he needed. Sh

oked through me at clan dinners. In the distance that never seemed to close no matter how hard I leaned toward him. I

ent thing from watching it play out two meters in front of you. The '

. She reached out and moved her hand slowly up his arm, her fingers tr

hat their faces were almost level, and Raina was looking at him like the rest of the corridor didn't exist

in that kind of soft and unhurried smile I hadn't seen on his face in so long I had almost stopped rememb

those words settle so

in public when appearances demanded it. I mean, the real one. The one that was easy, warm and reached his e

emember. And that, some

ndbag. It was the only thing available to h

rifted over Lucien's shoulder and fo

ery single thing about what I was looking at. The ''I don't know what I'd do without you.' The hand on his arm. The carefully timed softness of her voice. The smile she had drawn out of him without e

could see from my face that it had

was already shifting toward the direction she had been looking. But Raina was faster. Her hand came up

omething soft and helpless. "I think I have

k to her without the

like

her, her hand still resting at the back of his neck, him leaning in with all h

felt the pieces fall into place

he had neve

make sense of it; That he was guarded. That he needed more time. That the coldness was his own damage and not a re

nothing left t

, every morning I reached toward him and found nothing - all of it pointed here; To this cor

he wanted. The marriage, the title, the five year

thout intending. It just rested there, with m

ve known fro

ne being held upright by sheer willpower. Luckily, there was a seat right behind me and I dro

ecessary, because in the corner of my visi

e it could fully land on me. She had probably been passing through and clocked me on the w

placed a steady hand on m

eflex, even when the honest ans

d steered me gently toward a small side room just a little further down the corri

ou know, there was n

osed softly

other still resting on my stomach, staring at nothing, trying to figure

ccurred to me that I forgot the pregnancy report pap

wouldn't want a 3rd party