The Betrayal Within

the edge of the table, fell to the marble

had noti

denly in a zillion shards, and she hadn't

o the floor jolted Lyra out of

unbelievably harsh, and Lyra couldn't bel

s of ceramic. As she skittered around, she stepped on a shard of glass, and before she could

ard. "You can't even do anything right, so clumsy," he grum

, while I do the dishes," he called o

at the retreating back of her husband. Why was he b

ds to help her. No... he wouldn't even have let her get up to clear the shards in the first pl

she almost slapped herself.

she had cleared the floor and wrapped a band around her wound, Zande

r surp

her words carefully to avoid getting on his

u I'm going on a

You're not really setting out fo

le. "Look, Lyra, I don't want to argue." He

he said, throwing the

uspiciously, reluctant to

ll fin

's going on, but I believe we can

else. It's not like I'm going away forever." There was someth

t have to leave tonight." "Rig

ral manager's house tonight, so we can go over a few things as a te

ingers through her hair. T

e good,

the table, and back at Lyra's

closer to the table,

to head

go, Zander

hoo

call earlier in the day." She paused, studying

isappeared like it was never there. His eyes were back t

Why would I act strange? Di

and shook her h

r, and with each step he took, Lyra's heart grew heavier. Was he rea

d slowly turned to look at her. Then the weight dropped a few decibe

avity pull her towards him, into his arms. Zander engulfed her in

ed hard to force it back, but it was

ead. "Take good care of yourself. Most importantly, don't

ears still streaming down her cheeks, a thousand

t. She'd tried so hard to pretend it wasn't there, in the last eight hours, by doing any and everything that'd distract her.

hen she tried binge-watching the series Elsa kept singing about. The

uchpad Pro on the bed and picked up the envelope. At least w

envelope. The envelope contained a couple of papers. She wa

threw the paper on the floor, s