“I’m not lying.”
“You’re withholding,” he counters. “Same difference when it matters.”
“Figure out where your line is,” he adds. “And don’t cross it again.”
I huff a quiet breath. “That ship’s already said.”
“Then draw a new one,” he says.
He’s got a point. The line isn’t fixed; it can move and shift. And if I’m not careful, I’ll keep moving it until there’s nothing left.
I push off the wall, straightening.
“So, what’s the call?” Mason asks.
“I do this by the book,” I say.
Mason raises an eyebrow slightly. “All of it?”
I nod. “From here on out.” That’s the important part.
Because I have to. If I don’t, I won’t recognize what I become by the end of this.
“And her?” he asks.
That’s the hardest part. I exhale slowly, “I tell her.” Because she deserves that much, at the very least. Even if it breaks everything between us.
Some truths don’t stay buried. And this one is rising from the dead.
Chapter 34
Liv
I don’t think I’ve ever been this tired in my life. Not physically, that kind of exhaustion I know how to handle. Just pound coffee, roll with the adrenaline, and rely on muscle memory. Long shifts, bad calls, too much blood loss, and not enough time: I can function on that.
But this? This is different. This is the kind of tiredness that rips at your attention, constantly and unrelentingly.
I stand at the edge of one of the manor’s massive windows, staring out at a yard that looks like it belongs in a magazine instead of real life. The grass is perfectly cut. The trees are symmetrical in a way that nature doesn’t bother with.
And it’s quiet, too quiet. Even after a shift.
Especially after a shift.
I wandered into the library after finding Pip and Wilfred in the kitchen. “He seems to prefer the salmon pate canned food over the chicken,” Wilfred said, grinning at me as Pip scarfed down wet cat food like I’d been starving him of the stuff his whole life.
It seems like they’re spending a lot of time together since we came to the manor. I’m not sure if that just them finding friendship in each other or if Pip just gravitates to the person who fills his kibble bowl now.
But something tells me Pip isn’t just loving from his stomach when it comes to the old butler.
“Hey.” Alex’s voice comes from behind me.
I don’t turn right away. “Hey,” I echo.
“You just got back?”
“Yeah.”
We both pause as he steps beside me in the window. “You didn’t eat yet.”
