oice steady, her research on sustai

a stretch of ethical boundaries her

real estate empire, and she loved him, beli

ations, when the investors' anger t

ds tasting like ash, her own consultancy career,

ing in his eyes – relief, or was it

immense, not jus

er beloved Appalachian mountains, the crisp lines of her res

hosomatic, stress-indu

e, observing the subtle language o

m around her, his voice a

vowed, his breath warm against he

r world shrinking to the sounds ar

landscape of her life, his guilt a

aditions of the mountains she grew up in

now served only to navigate the darkness, guide

of hers, his success a constant

urnals and plant specimens, now held only the essenti

eceding, replaced by someone relia

a gentleness that