The workday crawled to a close, but Ryan hardly noticed time passing.
It wasn’t that the day was slow; it was that his mind refused to stay in one place. Meetings blurred together, deadlines flickered past him, charts and spreadsheets faded to meaningless blocks of colour. People spoke, directors, shareholders, his financial controller, their voices droning through the conference room, but none of their words managed to anchor him.
His focus kept drifting.
Circling.
Returning to the same place like a tide that couldn’t help but pull back to its shore.
Eve.
Her quiet morning smile.
Her soft voice.
The way she had pretended not to hear Kimberly banging at the door, even though the entire neighbourhood must have heard. The way she had stood in the kitchen with her chin lifted, her bac
