Chapter Two

Lily’s POV

I returned the following evening at exactly the same hour.

The executive floor was once again half-dark, the corridor lit only by the low recessed lights that never seemed to reach the corners. My reflection moved across the glass walls as I walked hair smoothed more carefully than the day before, blouse chosen with an attention I refused to examine too closely. The folder in my hand was thinner this time. I had removed everything that looked like pleading and left only the cleanest figures I could find.

Thomas’s door stood closed. I knocked once and waited.

“Come in.”

He did not rise when I entered....