“I know what I did,” I say.
“Say it.”
“I let her believe she was chosen without giving her the information she needed to decide.”
Jamie’s jaw tightens.
“You don’t get to be careless with someone like her,” she says. “Audra of all people.”
“I know.”
“No,” she snaps. “You noticed. You didn’t honor it.”
She exhales.
“You’re not a villain,” she says. “But you behaved like a man who thought silence was restraint.”
“I was protecting myself,” I say quietly.
“Yes,” Jamie agrees. “You were.”
She opens the door.
“But who was protecting Audra?” she says without looking back.
Chapter Thirty-Three
DEREK
I don’t contact her.
Not because I don’t want to.
Because I finally understand what wanting costs.
Tuesday arrives with the same efficiency as Monday—emails, meetings, numbers that behave the way they’re supposed to. I do the work. I speak when spoken to. I keep my door closed.
Jamie doesn’t look in.
That’s new.
By midmorning, I’ve answered everything that requires a response and avoided everything that doesn’t. My phone stays face-down on the desk. It hasn’t lit up with anything personal since Saturday, and that’s as it should be.
The silence isn’t empty anymore.
It’s instructional.
It’s nearly noon when I learn she isn’t here.
Not from her.
Not directly.
Jamie mentions it without preamble when she drops a folder on my desk, her tone precise, professional.
“Audra took a few days,” she says. “Personal time.”
I don’t look up right away. I keep my eyes on the document in front of me, the words blurring just slightly.
