The tablet was propped against the mirror on Arianne's dresser, Franz's face filling the screen. He was in his hotel room at the remote filming location, the same one she'd seen every night for the past week. The walls were beige. The lamp was too bright. His hair was still damp from a shower.
Arianne sat cross-legged on her bed in her nightdress, working through the last steps of her skincare routine. The familiar motions were soothing after the day she'd had. Toner. Serum. Moisturizer. Her hands moved automatically while she talked.
She told him everything. The call from the school. The drive over with her heart in her throat. The voices through the principal's door. Miss Chen's briefing in the hallway. Lily's fierce defense of herself and her brother. Bradley's retaliation. Leo's shove and the word that had broken free of him after more than a year of silence: "NO."
