a printed label, the kind his legal team used for a

against her stomach. She hadn't moved it, and she was suddenly, desperately awar

said. Not a questi

decided something and was simply informing the room of the outcome. "I spoke to my lawyer this week. The terms are generou

stead as something thin and disbelieving. "You

k we both know this marriage was never going to be more than what it's

hree days after the one night that had fel

: it hadn't meant anything to him at all. Or worse - it had meant something, and that was exactl

two-second glance across the ballroom

ust hadn't wanted to admit wh

aid quietly. "Is t

tly, but close enough to it that she knew she'd lande

sn't

mething almost gentle underneath the practiced calm, which was somehow worse than if he'd st

someone who

le reading of it, because in the moment she heard only the ending of something and missed en

dn't t

refused to come out, because some old, proud, wounded part of her would rather he never know than have him think, even

him out. Cleanly. Without a sin

t on the desk, next to the folder, as if he'd known all

that looked almost like disappointment that she'd agreed so easily - but he recovered

e pen touched paper. She pressed it f

si

say anything else, before her voice could betray the thing she was carrying

ears came, and by then the study door was already c