“It wouldn’t be the first time.”There’s no sign he’s bothered by the possibility of a billionaire coming after him.He notices my concern.“Don’t worry;The Observer’s lawyers are very good at their job.”
It’s not the lawyers I’m worried about.
“And if he wants to do more than simply sue you?”
A muscle in his jaw jumps.“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”
It’s infuriating.How can he be so blasé about his own safety?
“You really care so little about your own life?”
It’s impossible to read anything in his expression.It must be exhausting, staying closed off all the time.
“I know others will pick up where I left off.”
The cold spreads, sweeping through my veins and sinking deep into my bones.I can’t imagine a world without Sterling Ross in it.I don’t want to.
“That isn’t the point.You mean something to people.”You mean something to me.
“A movement can’t survive on the back of one person—because what needs to change is bigger than that.These systems are insidious; they’re everywhere on purpose.You need to be everywhere at once, you need to get people to listen and hear you, and you need to keep convincing them, over and over again until, as a collective, the system is replaced with something better.That’s why we do this.It’s difficult and frustrating, and at times, you’ll never be more alone.”
My heart aches for him, for all of us, deserving of so much more than the world we find ourselves surviving in.A world crafted on purpose by so few, to harm so many.
“You’re not alone now.”It’s as much for me as it is for him.Someone to understand.Someone to see.“I’m here.I can help.Let me.Be here with me.”
“I’m not very good at letting people in.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed,” I tease, my pulse fluttering at a high speed when Sterling cracks a smile.
I wonder how offended he’d be if he knew how much I wanted to kiss him right now.
“How do you feel about dumplings?”he asks, the app already open on his phone.
“I feel good,” I reply, and when he looks up, I know he knows I’m not only talking about the food.
* * *
By the time I’m full, I can barely keep my eyes open.
“I can’t look at another routing number,” I groan.“Please don’t make me.”
He chuckles, a low, grumbly sound that I’m growing quickly addicted to.
“Go home, Mia.I can handle this.”
“No, I’m not going till we find something,” I say, but I pick up my phone instead.
Sterling is convinced that the connection between Rose and her sister-in-law is being exploited, but there’s no money trail to back it up.There’s more to motivate than money though.
If Cox really is an evil mastermind, is Rose even aware?It seems unlikely that someone in close proximity could be fooled, but cults have survived for years on leveraged faith and manipulation.
Her social media matches Cox’s public promises of philanthropy.Photo ops fill her feed, with captions extolling the virtues of working with “such a brilliant mind.”It takes a few minutes of scrolling to get beyond the fan worship to anything more personal, but she must have scrubbed anything related to family when she took on the higher-profile role.
Hmm …
Her followers sit at eighty thousand, but she’s only following nine hundred, so I start there, checking first for variations of her surname.Tegan comes up on search two, her profile photo one of the two of them from the wedding; it looks to have only been a few months ago, which explains why she’s using both her married and maiden names still.
Alice and I have planned our dream wedding many times, the groom changing as often as our crushes were formed, but I always knew I wanted to keep my name.Why wouldn’t I?It’s mine.I love it.I’ve worked hard to see it in bylines, although I admit, the idea of something formal, tangible, and legal that stakes a claim on my partner runs a visceral thrill through my veins.
