“What do you want me to do, boss?”
“Nothing. I’ll handle this.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
I hang up and stare at her photo. She’s been in my building the whole time.
I pull the wedding ring from my desk drawer, spin it between my fingers.
“Found you, princess,” I say to the empty office.
6
SAVANNAH
The thingabout starting over is that you have to pretend the old version of yourself never existed.
I’m good at pretending. I’ve been doing it for three weeks now.
New city. New job. New Savannah, who doesn’t think about Mason or Lizzy or the house in Chicago. New Savannah, who definitely doesn’t think about the weird gap in her memory from that night in Vegas.
Well, mostly doesn’t think about it.
I smooth down my skirt and gather my notes for the presentation. The conference room on the fortieth floor has floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Manhattan, and normally, the view makes me nervous. Heights have never been my thing.
But today I’m too focused on not screwing this up.
“You’ve got this,” Jenna whispers beside me. She’s another new hire, started the same day I did. “It’s just a presentation.”
“To the executive team,” I mutter back.
“They’re just people.”
People who could fire me if I mess this up.
I pull up my slides on the screen and take a breath. The conference room is filling up with executives in expensive suits. I recognize a few from the company directory. The CFO. The COO and Various VPs whose names I can’t remember.
The chair at the head of the table is empty.
“Whenever you’re ready, Ms. Castellanos,” someone says.
Right. Okay. I can do this.
I launch into my presentation. Market analysis for our Q4 campaigns.
Slide one goes fine. I hit my talking points, make eye contact, and try not to sound like I’m reading off a script.
Slide two is better. I’m finding my rhythm, and a few people are nodding along.
I click to slide three. The door opens.
A man walks in, and people immediately sit up straighter. Conversations die mid-sentence. He’s tall, silver-haired, and wearing an obviously luxurious suit. He moves with the kind of confidence that comes from owning everything in sight.
And I know his face.
I know him.
