is word about

actually hers. She finished packing the boxes she had left half done. She walked past her old firm's building out of habit and did not go in. By the time the sun came up t

ute, and did not ask how she had spent the day,

smelled like new c

thick enough to double as a doorstop, and tried to look like this was a normal Tuesday, instead of

sliding a pen toward her. "R

like you exp

art people read everything, especially the

ad eve

letion, a bonus if the shareholder vote went Damien's way and the arrangement could end early with both parties sat

g. No discussion of the arrangement's true nature with press, family, or personal contacts, a clause tha

day before. Exit clause. If at any point the arrangement became unsafe, exploitative, or fundamentally different from w

ced then, and she noticed again now, seeing it in w

elve was n

ove in this we

ncé raises questions we can't afford to raise. The board notic

immediately. Meridian Financial Recovery. The loan company that had been calling twice a week since her severa

phone face down

ght?" Priya aske

t someone I don't have

aid nothing, which Ivy appreciated more than she would have admitted out loud. It was a small mercy, bein

Cross's, who had apparently signed before she even arrived, alr

e bothered her

h the version of events they would be telling people. A whirlwind romance, six months of qui

sked, watching the city slide past the window, alr

ask follow up questions about everything," Priya

eum someone happened to sleep in. Instead it was a converted Gold Coast townhouse, warm wood, high wind

he had met him, sleeves rolled to the forearm, looking less like a headline and more like a

yes," h

"We're engaged, apparently. It says so

crossed his face and disappear

or the first time. "Priya will show you to your room. If you need anyth

ot

adable focus he had used to study the contract clauses she had insist

clause. I didn't fight it because I don'

see," I

tion. It came out soun

er word, and Ivy stood in the entryway of a home that was not hers, engaged to a man she had known

ed it ba

calls. One

life that had ended the moment she signed her name in blue ink, and she was not ready to let the two version