The secret held for another month.
We got careful. I stopped using the main elevator. Julian started leaving the service entrance unlocked after ten. We never arrived or left at the same time if my father’s building was anywhere in the same neighborhood. On the rare nights we risked dinner out, it was across the city in places neither of our circles would ever walk into.
It should have felt temporary.
It didn’t.
One rainy Thursday I showed up soaked from the short walk between the Uber and his door. Julian took one look at me, muttered a curse, and pulled me inside. He stripped the wet dress off me right there in the entryway, wrapped me in one of his shirts, and carried me to the couch instead of the bedroom. For a long time he just held me, chin resting on top of my head, while the r
