Martha and Lucas had their private conversation on the balcony later that evening, after Sophie and Kevin had gone home and the penthouse had settled into a comfortable quiet. I watched from inside while pretending to read a book, my eyes fixed on the page but my attention completely elsewhere. The words blurred together into meaningless shapes while my mind was entirely consumed by the two figures standing on the other side of the glass.
They stood side by side at the railing with the city glittering below them, and Martha's hand rested on Lucas's arm with the easy familiarity of a mother who had been touching her son his entire life. Lucas stood stiffly at first... he was always stiff when emotions were involved... but as the minutes passed I watched his shoulders slowly relax, watched his posture soften from rigid attention into something more human. It was like watching ice melt in slow motion, each degree of warmth revealing something that had been frozen for too long.
