(Cole)
I didn’t sleep after the call ended.
There was no point pretending I would. Lena’s voice stayed with me long after the line went quiet, not because she had sounded weak, but because she had sounded too controlled. That kind of control usually meant something had been pushed too far.
I sat behind my desk with the Calloway file open again.
Ryan stood across from me with his tie loosened and his sleeves rolled back, looking like he had already accepted we weren’t leaving soon. The updated valuation package sat between us along with photographs Lena had submitted weeks earlier. Invoices, contractor agreements, purchase receipts, mortgage contributions, all of it lined up cleanly.
The house was the center of it.
Not because Lena wanted the house itself. She didn’t. She wanted what
