---- ??? ----
The sun broke through the curtains, and I was already up. Showered. Staring into my closet like it held the answers to all the things I didn’t want to admit I was feeling.
Mary and Lillian burst in like a hurricane of heels and chaos.
“Okay, what do we have here?” Mary said, diving into my closet before I could stop her.
“This is ameet-the-parentsmoment, not akill-the-targetmoment,” Lillian added with a wicked grin.
“I’m regretting this already,” I muttered.
Lillian appeared holding up a soft forest green wrap dress.
“Try this. It says ‘I’m polite and pretty’ but also ‘I could seduce your son under the table if I wanted to.’”
I shot her a look. Mary wiggled her eyebrows.
“She’s not wrong.”
“I just want to make a good impression,” I said quietly.
Mary stilled.
“You actuallylikehim.”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Because the truth was loud in my chest, and I was trying toburyit.
My father’s words echoed again—weak, soft, compromised.
I pulled on the dress. Looked at myself in the mirror.
Lillian stepped up behind me and gently adjusted my hair, smoothing it down with a brush.
“You don’t have to be anyone else tonight,” she said. “Just be you.”
“Yeah,” Mary added from the bed, twirling a lipstick between her fingers.
“The version of you that kicks ass and still somehow makes Noah Bennett look like a lovesick idiot.”
That made me smile. Barely. But it was real.
Still, I could feel it creeping in—doubt, guilt, fear.
The mission was coming. The danger. My father’s voice. My own reflection.
But underneath it all…
So washe.
And somehow, that made everything harder.
Because I wanted it.
This night.
Him.
Even if I knew I shouldn’t.
