Just to imagine the moment she’d understand.
The moment she’d know.
She’d been seen.
Claimed.
And once she felt that knowing?
There would be no undoing it.
No escape.
Once she saw the thread for what it was, there’d be no going back.
CHAPTER 42
Strength in Small Things
Arden took a slow sip of coffee, letting its bitterness settle the unrest coiled in her chest.
Penny swept into the room like she always did. Half windstorm. Half caffeine buzz. She held her coffee in one hand and her laptop in the other. “Morning, sunshine!”
She slowed the moment her gaze landed on Arden. “Whoa. You look like someone hit pause mid-apocalypse.” Her mug hit the counter with a thunk. “Spill it. Blackwell drama again?”
Arden settled into the couch. The cushions gave beneath her, but the tension in her body didn’t. She circled the rim of her mug with one finger, mind elsewhere.
“It feels like someone’s always watching,” she said quietly, her voice rougher than she meant it to be. “Breathing wrong feels like giving someone front-row seats to the worst version of yourself.”
Penny wrinkled her nose. “Ugh. That’s a nightmare.”
Her gaze shifted.
She spotted it. The counter. The rose and the tin of tea sat intact, side by side.
Untouched. Wrong.
Penny zeroed in. “Wait. Is that… Delancey’s?”
Arden followed her line of sight. A fresh ripple of tension coiled low in her chest.
Penny crossed the room in three brisk strides, scooping up the tin like it might vanish.
“TheDelancey’s tea? Arden, this stuff costs more than rent.”
She turned, holding it up like damning evidence. “Okay, who’s sending you gifts fit for royalty?”
The question hit harder than she expected. Arden groped for an easy answer. A glib excuse. Anything. She came up empty. She shrugged instead. “It was… left for me at work.”
Penny’s brows shot up. “Left? Like, anonymously?”
Her stare sharpened. One hand landed on her hip. “You really weren’t going to bring that up?”
“It’s tea, Pen.” Arden forced a half-laugh. “Maybe it’s a thank-you from a client. People get sentimental over cocktails.”
But Penny’s expression dimmed, her suspicion growing.
Then she saw it. The rose.
