Martha I finished the bottle of gin. It burned all the way down, but still, sleep didn’t come. My head spun, but my thoughts kept circling the same dead end, Vander. I needed to speak to him. Needed him to hear me. To see me, not as the woman he had turned cold to, but the woman who once loved him without guard. If there was ever a time to fight for my place beside him, it was now. I slipped into his favorite lingerie, the black lace one he used to compliment me in, and wrapped a white silk robe over it. Maybe it was pathetic, maybe desperate. I didn’t care anymore. I had nothing left to lose. His room was empty when I entered. The cold, quiet space reminded me of how long I’d been shut out. I linked Jason and asked where Vander was. “He’s in the office,” Jason replied. “Meeting with

