Ch. 13: The Price of Silence

The letter had arrived without a name, and that was the first thing that frightened her.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. Nina crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

They did not speak for a long moment. Some silences carry more than words ever could, and this was one of them.

"You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

Tomorrow would ask its questions. Tonight, she let herself simply breathe.