“Maybe you need to give him an ultimatum. Tell him he has to actually make changes or you’re done.”
“I can’t do that. These victims deserve justice. This case is important. I can’t ask him to choose between them and me.”
“Why not? You deserve someone who chooses you. Who puts you first at least sometimes.” Lila sighed. “I’m not saying dump him. I’m saying make him understand this isn’t sustainable. That if he doesn’t find real balance, you won’t stick around forever.”
After they hung up, Nora sat with her dinner and thought about what Lila had said.
Was she being unreasonable? Expecting too much from someone whose job demanded everything?
Or was she right to want more than the scraps of attention Carson could spare between cases?
She didn’t have an answer.
All she knew was that loving Carson Black was harder than she’d expected.
And she wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep doing it.
***
At eleven PM, Carson finally left the surveillance position.
Shaw wouldn’t arrive until tomorrow. There was no reason to stay all night. Silas and Knox would take the overnight shift.
He drove home exhausted, his mind still on the case. On Shaw’s upcoming meeting with Maggie. On what they might be able to prove.
The apartment was dark when he let himself in. Nora had already gone to bed.
Carson found a plate of pasta in the fridge with a note:In case you’re hungry.
Guilt twisted in his stomach. She’d made him dinner. Waited for him. Eventually given up and gone to bed alone.
He heated up the pasta and ate standing at the counter, too tired to sit. Then he showered and slipped into bed beside her.
Nora was asleep—or pretending to be. She didn’t turn toward him like she usually did. Didn’t press back against him when he wrapped his arm around her waist.
The distance between them felt wider than the few inches separating their bodies.
“I’m sorry,” Carson whispered into the darkness.
Nora didn’t respond.
And Carson lay there, holding the woman he loved, feeling her slip away from him one broken promise at a time.
Tomorrow, he’d catch Shaw. He’d get the evidence they needed. He’d break this case wide open.
And then—after that—he’d fix things with Nora.
He’d be better. More present. More balanced.
After this case.
But even as he thought it, Carson knew the truth.
There would always be another case. Another victim needing justice. Another reason to obsess and push everything else aside.
This was who he was.
And he didn’t know if he could change.
