Not ‘Only call if it’s serious.’
Not, ‘Try to handle it yourself first.’
Just, ‘Call me.’
Something in my chest cracked open.
Not wide.
Just enough to let a sliver of light in.
Enough to make me realize that this wasn’t just about the contract anymore.
This was about something else.
Something I didn’t have a name for yet.
But it was there.
And it was growing.
Chapter 9
AMAI
The next morning, I couldn’t sit still.
I’d been awake since 5:00 AM, pacing the length of my living room like a caged animal. Back and forth across the hardwood, past the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city, past the leather furniture I never sat in, past the art I’d bought because it was expensive and not because I gave a damn about it.
My phone sat on the coffee table.
Silent.
Dr. Chen had called me at 12:47 AM after she left Truth’s house. Brief. Professional.Mild allergic reaction to the hormone injections. Completely normal. I showed her proper technique and left antihistamine cream. She’ll be fine.
Fine.
That word had been sitting in my chest for hours, heavy and insufficient.
I wanted details.
I wanted to know exactly what Truth’s injection site looked like when she got there, what her vitals were, whether she’d been scared when Dr. Chen examined her, and whether Delphine had asked questions that Truth couldn’t answer.
I wanted to know if Truth was sleeping now or if she was lying awake in that shotgun house, thinking about the fact that I’d sent a physician to her door at midnight like it was nothing.
Because itwasnothing.
Sending Dr. Chen was the easiest decision I’d made in months.
And that was the problem.
I stopped pacing.
Stood in front of the windows, hands in my pockets, staring out at the city waking up below me.
A woman in the Seventh Ward had called me at 11:00 PM because she was scared.
And I’d answered on the first ring like it was the most natural thing in the world.
