Chapter 75
Ciel
It's a normal day, a good day — the kind that tastes like salt and sunlight. Lanny's laughter peels through the house in little bursts. The faint sound of ocean waves.
For a moment everything feels held together by thin threads of ordinary peace.
Then there's a knock.
We don't get visitors.
Nolan goes to the door. I can hear low murmurs and then two silhouettes frame the doorway: one familiar, the other not. Charlie. Of course it's Charlie.
My jaw tightens. I narrow my eyes until the room goes blurry at the edges. Walking in with a tiny fruit gift box is charlie and the other man, who has silver hair graying and a business suit on, is carrying a huge box like it weighs nothing.
"Pardon the intrusion," the man says. He's polite and kind.
"No, it's fine," I say, stepping forward. Host mode engages automatically—smile, offer drinks, be the image of calm. My words are bright in the air. Inside, my stomach is a pool of acid because why is that omega in my home.
