Page 170 of Say My Name

I close my eyes, the exhaustion of the day pressing down on me. “I don’t know.”

Olivia lets the silence sit between us.

“Call me when you land,” she says, and it’s not a suggestion.

“I promise.”

Her words land like a punch, and I have to bite my lip to keep from crying again as she continues, “And if you get scared tonight, call me then too. You don’t have to handle everything alone just because you’re capable of it.”

After we hang up, I retrieve the test from behind the towels and place it in the zippered pocket of my suitcase. Clothes follow, then toiletries, chargers, and the crackers Maya gave me.

I tell myself leaving is a deliberate choice. Daniel is back. Dominic needs the distance he asked for. The baby needs me calm enough to make careful decisions. Two weeks in Colorado will give me room to separate what I want from what I fear.

All of those reasons are true, but none of them changes what I’m avoiding.

Before sunrise, I zip my suitcase and look around the condo Dominic once called a waiting room.

I understand what he meant now.

A car pulls up outside my building. I turn off the lights, close the door behind me, and carry our child toward the elevator, the silence of the apartment pressing in on me as I leave him behind.

CHAPTER 22

Dominic

Daniel Weller’s face fills the conference-room screen.

The recording is paused beneath an identifying banner.

DANIEL WELLER-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Weller Strategic Holdings

I read the name again.

Elena never gave me a name, but she gave me the story: the older mentor, the six years he spent weaving himself into her life until he was essential, the threat he made to her career when he was done with her.

I didn’t need an introduction to know who I was looking at.

I rest my hand on the table, keeping it steady. “Continue,” I say.

The recording resumes.

“Ms. Vale.” Daniel smiles into the camera. “It’s been a long time.”

His voice is smooth, warm, familiar. He calibrates the greeting to sound harmless to everyone else in the meeting.

Elena goes still.

The change lasts less than a second. Her fingers stop against the edge of her legal pad, and the color leaves her face. Then she straightens in her chair.

“Mr. Weller. Let’s focus on the financial projections.”

Her delivery is controlled enough to reset the meeting without creating a scene.

Daniel’s smile remains. “Of course.”

I sit back as the presentation continues.

Elena takes the team through client retention, compensation normalization, and concentration risk. Her voice never shakes. When Weller’s chief financial officer challenges her downside assumptions, she answers with the source data. When Daniel pushes for a faster recommendation, she tells him Rowe Holdings won’t discuss valuation until his company provides the underlying contracts.