The Tokyo air felt different charged with motion, scented with rain and possibility. Violet stood in front of the glass walls of the new Aurora branch, watching her reflection merge with the city lights. The skyline pulsed like a heartbeat alive, untamed, promising.

It had been three weeks since she’d left New York. Three weeks of twelve hour workdays, press conferences, language lessons, and sleepless nights filled with Bryan’s voice in her head, saying, “Don’t lose yourself to the work again.”

She tried not to.

She really did.

But sometimes, when she stood on the balcony of her apartment overlooking Shibuya, the ache of distance felt sharper than she’d imagined....