I took a breath.
“I need to stop reacting.”
Adrian watched me carefully.
“What are you going to do?”
“Call Celeste.”
“Good.”
“Then Marisol.”
“Good.”
“And then Ethan.”
His expression changed slightly.
“That may not be—”
I raised an eyebrow.
He stopped.
Then smiled faintly.
“Your decision.”
“Yes.”
Lily held up a crayon.
“Purple.”
I looked at it.
“Yes, baby. Purple.”
She went back to drawing.
I felt something inside me settle.
Not confidence exactly.
Something more useful.
Direction.
I had boarded the plane believing my life was falling
apart.
Maybe it was.
But falling apart and ending were not the same thing.
Sometimes things broke because they had been built around truths no one had been willing to face.
I looked at Adrian.
“Find Claire.”
“I intend to.”
“And when you do?”
“I ask her why.”
“No threats.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I wasn’t planning any.”
“No pressure either.”
“Elena.”
“I mean it.”
He studied me.
Then nodded.
“No pressure.”
“Just the truth.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“So will I.”
Marisol arrived an hour later.
She entered the hotel room carrying two grocery bags, a backpack for Lily, and the expression of a woman prepared to reorganize someone’s entire life before lunch.
