Chapter 1

The office cleared out at six thirty on a Friday like it always did — gradually at first, then all at once, the way water drains from a tub. Chairs pushed back, laptops closed, the specific Friday energy of people who had been waiting for five o'clock since Tuesday morning finally getting what they wanted.

Zoe stayed.

She always stayed. Not because she loved the work more than everyone else — she didn't, particularly — but because Friday evenings in an empty office were the only time she could actually think. No phones, no interruptions, no Marcus from accounting appearing at her desk to ask questions he could...