Page 58 of Their Arrangement
Just me and the sound of my own heart pounding too fast, too hard, like it was trying to climb out of my chest before I did something worse than what I’d already done.
I didn’tstop at my floor.
Didn’t go home.
Instead, I went two levels higher.
Where Barron was.
Where the real silence lived.
Because if I was unraveling?
I was going to drag him with me.
The hallway outside Barron’s office was quiet—too quiet. That kind of quiet that wasn’t stillness, but pressure. Like the walls were listening.
I didn’t knock.
Didn’t need to.
He’d hear me.
And if he didn’t? He’d feel me.
I stepped inside.
Found him exactly where I knew he’d be.
Behind the glass desk. Sleeves rolled. Tie loosened but not gone. Posture straight. Jaw clenched like he’d been holding in a scream since 2019.
A storm held hostage in skin.
He didn’t look up.
“Don’t make me repeat myself,” he said.“Out.”
“I found her,” I said.
His pen paused mid-signature. Just for a second.
Then kept moving.
“Where.”
“At Camille’s grave.”
He stopped writing.
Good.
I didn’t move from the doorway.
Didn’t sit.
Just stood there and watched the man who used to be our shield. The one who once held this family on his back like it wouldn’t crush him.
Now he looked like a man barely holding the line between grief and collapse.
