melled like lea

ast the tinted windows. The driver never spoke. Neither did the security man in the

ice was still taped to the door. I tore it down and

a stranger, packing only what I could not replace: the photo of my mother laughing on a beach before the diagnosis, the worn sweater she had

nd furniture, the clothes that smelled faintly o

hile I was fold

o

second ring, forci

y,

aid the outstanding balance was paid in full this afternoon. All of

roat

temporary job. Good money. Don't wor

, softly, "You're not doing

the empty apartm

t something that w

he never did. That

e you,

you to

l before my voi

r, the sky had turned the color of bruised steel. A different security man esc

and forgot h

as dark, minimal, and expensive enough to pay my mother's medica

shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows, pouring two glasses of w

on time,

wn near the entrance.

r half a second. The contact felt louder than it should have. "Your room is the second door on

e the way my hands wanted to

mpson Global charity gala. The board will be watching. S

rly slipped f

's...

d." He set his own glass down on the ma

, pulse

produced a small black velvet b

nside-simple, elegan

. "If anyone asks how I proposed, you will

the box

the city lights like it already

, I to

n as I slid it onto my finger. It

, something unreadable

t the screen, and for the first time since I met h

k at me, voic

tomorrow. We leave for th

air between us

ter tonight, do not

at he meant, the elev

oors

cold confidence Alex carried like armor. She looked straight

"You're the temp

jaw tig

quietly. "I wasn

's smile

ver left mine. "We nee

the living room as if sh

a second-something almost like wa

ranger's penthouse with a diamond on my finger and the sudden, sinking certainty that