t for her phone out of habit,

ve. A quiet si

ighing a decision that shouldn't have been one. Then s

e moved through it, her step

r, she paused there, hand hovering, listening f

radiating through the

ed neatly made, surface clear, curtains half-drawn to let the morning light spill in wi

he desk first. The

was, a

he room, reminding herself that this was all s

, just briefly. She

wer, as curiosity led h

accident. The folder

stared ba

n. It was type

a H

omach

of her crouched beside a wheelchair, her hands stained with blood that wasn't hers. A scanned copy of the papers she had

nguage.

t paperwork. It

htened as the

peration alone, it h

Dates, notes, words like contingency and

opened be

and saw the folder in

idn't

ough," Tara

answer

voice was measured, but she

s car

re than ange

didn't just need a wife. You neede

didn't waver.

omeone who

you chose me because I

were the only one who stayed

out my life like a case file.""I neede

heavy somewhere d

ued, "people saw a prob

ive you ownersh

wanted ow

like a plan?" she demande

nce she had met him,

e," he said quietly. "And to

s colla

ly, disbelief tre

hat makes me

I think it ma

moment making her breath hot. "You don't ge

t my consent," she said. "Do

. "Do you know what it feels like to be one signatu

d between them. This wasn't attraction, it wa

wly, her hands steadied as

ss here," Ethan sai

me with the truth," she s

risk that.""Because you don't

ed in his eyes, m

, stepping past him. "A

s she reach

ou don't

, hand on

looking back, "this sto

ng there, the folde

obligation and resistanc

spital, Ethan Hale realized som

sn't a

as a