Chapter 133

Aria's POV

Kira read the letter on a Sunday in August.

She asked for it in the morning, simply, with the directness she used for things she'd been patient about long enough. I went to the drawer and took it out and gave it to her without adding anything to the giving. She took it to her room.

She was gone for two hours.

I did ordinary things in the ordinary way of someone allowing time to be what it needed to be. Made tea. Sat with the work correspondence that had accumulated through the week. Watched the garden through the kitchen window — the August fullness of...