Page 217 of Their Arrangement
But something inside me wilted.
And the silence that settled behind him? Wasn’t stillness. It was distance. It was colder than any silence I’d ever felt from him.
Not cruel. Not indifferent. Just… calculated.
Measured.
Like he’d already decided how far away to stand to keep from catching fire. Or maybe to keep me from burning. I watched the door after he left the room.
Waited.
Expected him to come back.
To say something.
To call me soft or reckless or stupid for what had happened to me.
But he didn’t.
He just let me stand there, bruised and barefoot, wearing his shirt and his silence like a punishment I hadn’t earned yet.
And maybe that was worse. The chain on my collar felt heavier today. Like it had gained weight just from the tension in the air. Like it knew I was running out of time.
By the time I got to the office, I felt like I’d been hollowed out.
Everyone stared again.
Royal gave me a chin lift. Loyal offered a nod. Barron didn’t look up.
I sat at my desk and scrolled through nothing. My inbox was empty. But my chest was full. Too full. Ready to crack.
At 10:02, I got the message.
Office. Now.
Wolfe.
I stood.
My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. The walk down the hallway was too long. Too loud.
The elevator blinked once behind me as I passed it. I didn’t stop. Didn’t breathe. When I stepped into his office, I didn’t wait to be told. I closed the doorbehind me.
Softclick.
A sound that echoed in my spine.
He didn’t look up right away. Didn’t rise. Just sat there. Across the desk. Hands steepled. Eyes unreadable. His mouth a thin, cold line.
The silence between us didn’t just stretch.
It cracked.
“Do you know what it feels like,” he said, voice low, “to be trusted by a man who already knows you’re lying?”
I froze.
My breath caught. My voice didn’t work. He leaned back slowly. Tilted his head. Watched me like he was cataloguing all the ways I might fold.
