Chapter 10 Unexpected Allies

• Amelia’s POV
• The office is finally quiet at seven-thirty, the open floor plan empty except for the hum of computers left running overnight. I stay at my desk, organizing files that don’t really need organizing, grateful for the silence and the excuse to delay going home to my empty apartment.
• Three weeks at Hartwell & Associates, and I’ve mastered the art of being invisible. I arrive early, leave late, keep my head down. The whispers have mostly stopped—or maybe I’ve just gotten better at not hearing them. Either way, I’ve learned to exist in the margins, to be competent and unremarkable and completely forgettable.