k on his face, the look of a man who believed he had expertly ha

rd his own office. "I've got it under control. Sometimes y

te it. My team? He meant him and Chloe

fect imitation of the admiring wife he expecte

g the tone of a wise mentor. "It's about perspective. You get too bogged down in the tiny details, Ava. You let things get to

t shed a tear over our dead child. A wave of nausea rolled through me, but I kept

rstand,

ulder, a gesture that was meant to be comforting but felt like a br

nes about where he' d been late at night. I forgave his ambition when it turned cruel, when he belittled my colleague

r project two years ago, I stayed up for seventy-two hours straight, re-drafting plans to fix his error so the partners would never know. I cov

ad earned me a death se

of pain. It was a tool. A whetstone aga

. It was an office-wide notifi

mergency in West Wi

om our accounting department, who is experiencing a se

e to retirement. In the original timeline, he recovered.

d. It was a te

! And the 'fix' for your littl

s a heroic rescue. A cold dread, sharp and familiar, settled in my stomach. The "medical e

ith grief over the miscarriage. Chloe had told me all about it later, fra

T email again, th

the consequences of his association with Chloe. I would have man

anym

her. I wasn't going to run interference. I was

ces fall wh

s simply letting it happen, watching with the detached calm of a spectator who already knows the final score. He wanted me