Chapter 14: The Loading Dock

Danielle's POV

Claire Danforth got out of her car and stood in the street with her car door open.

She still wore the black from the funeral. Her hair had come down on one side.

I had known her for six years, and I had never once seen her hair come down.

Nathan stood on the step above me with my coffee in his good hand.

He was not looking at her face.

I noticed that first. He was looking at her collar, and then at the curb.

"Nathan," Claire said. "Please look at me."

"No."

He said it quietly.

Her hands opened and closed at her sides.

"I'm not going to say anything cruel," she said. "I'm not going to say anything at all. Just look."

"Go home, Claire."

"I don't have one. Grandma's house is sold, or it will be. The penthouse is in the company's name. Tonight I don't have anywhere."

I should have felt satisfied.

I had waited three years to watch her lose something, and I waited for the feeling to come.

It did not come.

"Then get a hotel," I said. "You can afford one."

Claire turned and saw me properly for the first time.

Her eyes went over my coat, my cup, my place beside Nathan on his step. Her mouth pulled into the cold line I knew from every trade dinner.

"Do you hold his coffee for him now?" she said. "Is that what Rowan Group pays you for?"

"I hold it because he's had a day," I said. "You ought to try it."

She laughed, once, and it broke in the middle.

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