She found almost nothing.
She spotted a laptop on the kitchen island and a single coffee mug in the sink. There was the faint smell of something that could’ve been dinner.
This was where Astoria came home to every night. This beautiful, empty house on a cliff.
“I’ve been dealing with the fallout all day,” Astoria said, moving toward the living room. She didn't sit, just stood by the windows with her arms crossed over her chest. “Gerald thinks we can get ahead of it. The financial records don't actually show anything illegal, just spending patterns that look bad out of context. We're preparing a statement.”
“That’s good.” Miller’s voice sounded strange to her own ears.
“My board is concerned, obviously. The stock dipped three percent this morning, though it's already recovering.” Astoria was talking fast, the way she did when she was trying to control a situation. “The PR team wants me to do an interview, something sympathetic, but I told them?—”
“Astoria.”
She stopped and swallowed once before she spoke again. “You didn’t come here to talk about my PR strategy, did you?”
“No.”
Silence hung in the air between them, and Miller couldn't feel anything except the weight pressing down on her chest.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Miller said.
Astoria didn’t move, everything having gone very still.
“The leak,” Miller continued, forcing herself to keep talking. “Valerie did that. You know she did. And if she’s willing to go that far with financial records, if she’s willing to publicly humiliate you just to gain an advantage…” She stopped and took a breath. “She’s looking for something to use against you, against both of us. Rachel warned me weeks ago that Valerie was suspicious and asking questions. Now this.”
“I know.” Astoria’s voice was quiet.
“If she finds out about us, she’ll use it. She’ll say I was feeding you information while I was still on the case, that I sabotaged her from the inside. None of it’s true, but it won’t matter. She’ll drag it into court, into the press, into everything. Your case will get thrown into chaos, and my career will be ruined.” Miller heard her voice crack and hated it. “I can’t be the thing that destroys you.”
Astoria didn’t respond. She just stood there, her arms still crossed and her face as unreadable as ever. The seconds stretched out, heavy and horrible.
“Say something,” Miller whispered.
“What do you want me to say?”
The question felt like she’d been slapped. Miller had expected… Actually, she didn’t know what she’d expected. An argument, maybe, or some kind of pushback. She’d expected Astoria to tell her that she was wrong, that they could figure it out, that she wasn’t going to let Valerie win.
Instead, Astoria was the ice queen Miller had first met in the mediation room, the one who looked through people like they weren’t worth seeing.
“I want you to tell me I’m wrong,” Miller said. “I want you to fight me on this.”
Something flashed across Astoria’s face. Miller couldn’t tell if it was pain or resignation or something else.
“You’re not wrong.” Her voice was flat. “You’re being smart and practical by protecting yourself.”
“I’m protectingus.”
“There is no us.” Astoria’s arms tightened even more around herself. “There can’t be. You just said so yourself.”
Miller felt the words crash against her. She took a step forward then stopped when Astoria didn’t move or reach out for her.
“That’s not—” Miller’s throat closed around the words. “I don’t want this to end, Astoria. I’m not doing this because I want to.”
“I know.”
“Then why aren’t you fighting back?”
Astoria’s jaw tightened, and for a moment, Miller thought she saw something crack in her composure, something raw and desperate trying to claw its way to the surface. But then it was gone just as quickly as it came, smoothed over and locked away.
