Allison Croft
The first thing Allison noticed when she woke up—
Was the silence.
Not the heavy kind.
Not the suffocating kind she had gotten used to in the Morrison house, where silence meant someone was about to speak and she needed to be ready.
No.
This silence… breathed.
Soft light filtered through the tall windows, warm and steady, stretching across the bed like it had nowhere else to be.
Allison stared at the ceiling for a moment, her body slow to move, her mind even slower to catch up.
No anxiety.
No dread.
No Martha.
She blinked.
"…huh."
Then memory hit.
The dinner.
The reveal.
Anthony's face.
Her father.
Her mother.
Lucian—
Allison sat up abruptly.
"…oh no."
The kiss.
Heat rushed up her neck so fast she dropped back onto the pillows and covered her face with both hands.
"Nope. Absolutely not. We're not doing this."
Her brain, clearly uncooperative, replayed it anyway.
The way he looked at her.
The way he didn't rush her.
The way he waited—
