Clara
I didn't sleep the night before I went to see him.
I lay awake rehearsing what I would say, discarding version after version as either too desperate or too cold, too much like begging or too much like an accusation neither of us was ready to survive. By the time the sun came up, I had nothing prepared at all, only the raw, unpolished truth and the faint hope that it might be enough.
"You don't have to do this alone," Sebastian said over breakfast, watching me push eggs around my plate without eating any of them. "I could come with you. Present it as a formal partnership discussion, keep things professional."
"No." I set my fork down, my hands steadier than I expected. "If there's any chance of reaching him, it has to be just me. The moment you're in the room, this becomes a busin
