“We don’t have to be a family. We just have to look like one.”

~$~

~Reo’s~

I end the call with Marcus Lane and press my phone face-down on the desk like it’s something poisonous. My jaw clenches. My eye twitches. I want to throw the phone straight through the penthouse glass, but I don’t. I breathe. I lean back in the leather chair, stare at the ceiling, and let his words echo.

“Investors are growing nervous, Reo. They want to see unity. You, the child, the woman. If not real, then at least believable.”

I run my fingers through my hair, gripping the roots. I’m so tired. Not physically....