"This announcement needs to be your focus because after this... Well You know Mara and are all we have"

All they have? all we have! When i was being shipped off, she had no idea i was all she had.

Moreover, what was with her sudden gentleness?

The office had gone quiet enough by late afternoon that the building felt almost private.

I was still at the desk when Ben appeared in the doorway. He did not come in at once. He looked at me the way he did when he was measuring the distance between what had happened and what might still be allowed. After a moment I nodded,...