The Reunion That Broke Me

spoke, his voic

's en

at Mia, but a

playing on his lips. "Just sayi

to rest," J

ng a last, leering glance over h

eve. But it m

protection and more like a zookeepe

the room was suff

ll weight of her revised his

e was linked to her deepest trauma, to

resence with *them* afterwards, his

fying conclusion: he was co

s and humiliation were a smokescree

get away. Not just from the lake house, but from h

escape from recent events. It was an escape from

attempt from the lake house, weeks before

erate, ill-pl

basement window, worked at it for

irs, lost in whatever dark thoug

mont night. Baref

ure, animal

he word wa

he woods, branches tearing a

she could just r

ate security guards he'd hired to watch the p

. Vance. The ba

eaction wa

on the antique des

ery road out of this county. Use whatever

eyes blazing with a possessive ra

How dare she tr

ound on her burner phone after the charity gal

attered his world a

estures mean nothing. Everyone knows yo

d over, the words bu

after he'd thought they were buil

eful orchestration of the gala incident where his hearing aids suppos

ty, his hearing loss

ear, the ever-present

ldhood infection, misdiagn

discreet hearing aids his secret shield

n since his diagnosis that h

g that vulnerability with her at

supposedly used

scuttled the Vance-Chen merger – a disaster also expe

und, so personal, it had b

s deal; she'd targeted his very es

ge had felt justifi

understand the pa