te of charcoal c
raw, burning reminder of the five shots of Maotai I'd forc
edative the ER doctor gave me
ng, they said. And a dange
ed to pick me up
d me, even now, a year afte
e called in a crisis. The lines were blurry, toxic,
hospital bed, the IV stand squeaki
onger than I thought.
uite asleep, but
e from the quiet stairwel
ne. With our fina
n project is locked down. That sev
'd poured my lifebloo
, his voice smooth. "A Project Director title.
ary. A cold knot f
. His voice was tight. "It's he
augh in his tone. "I'll make sure she's taken care of. B
. The big pictur
any? She built the sales department from scratch. She took the fall for those
. He remembered. Etha
ecause I said I made the call Ethan botched
," Ethan scoffed.
pped, heavy with something dark. "You re
he baby. Our baby.
yself for. The stress, the d
n snapped, but his voice lacked convicti
it was a 'blessing in disguise.' Your exact words. Because a baby would hav
nausea. The roo
bedrock. Solid, dependable. But Olivia keeps things running smoothly behi
my life's work as i
eer. All just tools for
estowing a great favor. "A big one. But the title a
e, but this felt like a deepe
d history, my unwavering lo
ke the arrangements. The press release needs to name Oliv
cts. My strategy. Gi
physical thing, cla
y head sharpened i
the project. It
he 'cornerstone'
own ambitio
ss emotio
Oh god,
ve it was my fa
blacked out
d again, the hallwa
ward my room, his fa
kay, baby? Yo
ative echo of our past. His hand r
soft, caring. The voice he used when he wanted something.
hought I was just dazed from t
lly. "Just some boring financ
i
screamed
ver made for him felt
soul and pat me on the
lm settle
naive. Devoted. E
as w
those thing
anym
was t
thing. He wouldn't
lan. I neede
Ste
ed from the dep
an's nemesis. Et
d. He'd remembered my name. He'd told me, "If you ever get tired of building some
based
eyes, feigni
red," I
. "Rest, baby. I'll ta
. You'll take care of de
another call, I reached for my
I found Liam Sterling
a short, dir
the Henderson project. Every contact, every piece of data. Ethan is abou
fore I could