without an

tires that cost more than most people's cars. She stood in the silence he left behind, h

s-" Jord

have been gentler, should have given him time, should have-" She stopped, her voice

kno

him. His expression was careful, controlled, but his ey

fight in boardrooms, in markets, in the kind of corporate warfare that makes people disappear. And you just-" H

s." She pulled away, suddenly

r. Pim prepared the west w

tching his expression flicker. "Our bedroom,

immediate. "I've never-there h

ow

and rooms that had been reimagined by strangers, until they reached the double doors

tly as she

windows overlooking the garden, the ones she'd insisted on despite the security concerns.

ighth

perspective that proved he'd painted it himself. The only light you ever needed. She'd teased him f

dn't-I tried to take it down once, in the first year. Hector found me ho

ose enough to touch, his expression raw and ungua

e said. "Told them. About how

e locked me up, Issy. Hector almost tried." He stopped, his jaw working as he swallowed down the darkest parts of the last fifteen years

ll

esperate care. "Please. Not yet. Let me have this. Let me have you back, just

e'd carried, the love that had survived somehow, im

e squeezed his hand. "You can't build a future on secrets.

iciously bright. "Soon,"

watching the afternoon light move a