After a Year of Silence novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Glass Wall

Harper demands the reporting line be undone and a near kiss against the wall is broken by her mockery; both learn the other was sent word through Gwen.

At six that evening the thirty-fourth floor was empty, and I walked into Quentin's office without knocking.

He was standing at the window with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled to the elbow.

He did not turn around.

"Undo the email," I said.

"It's the policy, Harper. The board chair would have done it by Wednesday anyway."

"The board chair did not shove you in front of forty people."

"No," he said. "You did."

He turned then.

There was a red mark on his forearm where the chair had caught him.

I looked at it for a second and hated that I looked.

"You told my entire department who I was married to," I said. "I spent three years making sure my work was judged as mine."

"I know why you did it."

"Then why would you?"

"Because I asked you four times." His voice stayed low and even. "Four times, Harper. And four times you said not yet."

"That does not give you the right."

"I stood next to you at the holiday party, and I shook your hand like a stranger from the second floor."

He stopped there and breathed.

"Three years I was your secret."

I had no answer ready for that.

"There's a video," I said instead. "Six people filmed it."

"Gwen already had it pulled from the company chat."

"Of course she did."

"She's been up since five, cleaning up after me."

I thought of the coffee on my desk that morning, hot and exactly how I liked it.

Then I started for the door.

He crossed the room faster than I expected.

He did not grab me.

He put one hand flat on the glass wall beside my head and stood there, close enough that I could smell the rain on his shirt.

My back was against the wall.

His other hand hung at his side, and I could see it shaking.

"You still wear it," he said.

I looked down.

The chain had slipped out of my collar, and the ring was lying against my blouse.

"So do you," I said.

"Every day. Even in London."

His eyes dropped to my mouth and stayed there.

The wall was cool against my shoulder blades and the rest of me was not.

He leaned in an inch, and then another.

I could feel his breath on my lip.

I wanted him to close it, and that made me furious.

"Is this the first step toward peace?" I said. "Do you pin the board against the wall too, or only the people who shove you?"

He went still.

Then he took his hand off the wall and stepped back, and the air between us got colder.

"That was unfair," he said.

"It was accurate."

He rubbed his face with both hands.

"I came back to fix this. I came back because I couldn't stay away one more day."

"You managed it for a year."

"Because you asked me to."

"I did not ask you for anything." My voice cracked, and I hated that too. "My father died seventeen days after you flew out."

He lowered his hands.

"Harper."

"He died on a Tuesday, in his own bed, with Quinn holding one hand and me holding the other, and you were not there."

Quentin's face went blank, and then it creased with confusion.

"I know he died," he said slowly. "I called you that night. It went to voicemail."

"My phone was off. I was at the hospice. I called you every night that week."

"My phone never rang."

"Then you blocked me."

"I would never block you."

"Then you did not answer."

"Harper, listen to me." He stepped closer, careful this time, and kept his hands where I could see them. "I did not come to the funeral because you sent word that you did not want me there. You said it was family only. You said you needed space and that I should not call."

I stared at him.

"I said that to nobody."

"You said it to Gwen."

"I said nothing to Gwen about the funeral except that I couldn't breathe."

He did not move.

"Gwen told me," he said, "that you asked me to stay away."

"Gwen told me," I said, "that you refused to come."

We looked at each other across the dark glass wall.

In the silence I could hear the cleaning crew's cart rolling somewhere down the hall.

"Gwen," Quentin said.

"Gwen," I said at the same time.

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