Chapter 44: No Asset More Valuable

For a few careful minutes, the world looked almost ordinary.

Adrian finds Claire beneath a fallen beam and shields her as the ceiling gives way. Firefighters pull them out unconscious.

Adrian understood that the next choice would be remembered long after the explanation. For years Claire had translated Adrian's absence into excuses. Now she watched actions instead, and Adrian understood that no speech could shorten the distance he had made.

When he wakes with burns along his shoulder, his first question is whether Claire is breathing.

"The evidence can burn. She cannot."

Desire moved between them like weather: undeniable, changeable, and no longer mistaken for a promise.

Claire remains unconscious with a dangerous head injury.