Chapter 6

Cassandra slipped out of the canteen in a hurry, her lunch half-finished in front of her. She had been sitting beside her best friend amid the clatter of trays and chatter of colleagues, but her thoughts refused to stay tethered to the present. The lunchtime bustle blurred around her as she fled the table and raced down the corridor, the dull echo of her shoes on polished tile keeping rhythm with the anxious pounding in her chest.

Earlier that afternoon, the day had already betrayed her. On the way to the office, her car had sputtered to a stop on a lonely stretch of road, forcing her to abandon it by the roadside and catch a cramped commuter van. By the time she arrived, frazzled and late, her boss had cornered her with pointed questions—nothing she said about her marriage convinced him she wasn’t single, no matter how many times she insisted. Her inbox groaned under the weight of deadlines, each email more urgent than the last, and even the chicken salad she had picked up fr