sidewalk. Serena stopped three feet away fr
lack Maybach idling at the curb
ping with poison. "You get kicked out of the house and imme
exhaustion. She didn't ev
e, Eleanor?" Ser
d out a crisp piece of paper. She held it betw
ered. "Pack your trash and leave New York. Go
in this city, you are a stain on the Sinclair na
spent far from this woman-the cold nights in unfamiliar beds, the birthdays that passed without a single phone call, the fragile daydreams she had constructed as a child to fill the v
dreams had loo
hat childish hope die
Eleanor smiled, th
ith slow, deliberate movements, she rip
eyes bulged. "Are yo
into tiny shreds. She threw her hand forward. The pieces of
lethal edge. "I am going to stay right here in New
e raised her hand, aiming a
ht Eleanor's wrist mid-air. She
ard, her back hitting
me here," Serena said, pointing at the b
shoulder as Eleanor screamed curses into the night. She heard
the sidewalk. Her shou
ep breath and
ll there. It waited in th
s fingers-a prop, perhaps, or an excuse to linger. His eyes were fixed on her, steady and patient.
felt like the first honest war
ed toward the only person who ha
e placed her hands on the edge of
still stand?" s
ent behind her, at the defiant set of her jaw, at the exhaustion she was too proud to name. Something shifted in his expression. It wasn't
e asked, though
ady, but her knuckles were white where she gripped the door frame. "I will play th
thing vulnerable crossed her
ntract," she added. "We
slow nod. He didn't smile. He didn't gloat. He simply accept
," he
her in the cold night air. For a moment they simply stood there, two people who had sp
ot grabbing, not demanding. An
The way he had stayed on the balcony. The way he had rolled down his window and waite
s. His fingers closed aro
"You're not spending ano
sting in his. Neither of them spoke. The silence between them was not awkward. It w
nto the eleva
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