KIRA

Dara arrived in the morning with her bag and the unhurried quality she always had, the specific patience of someone who had delivered enough news in enough rooms to know that rushing the delivery never improved the content.

I had been awake since before dawn.

Not from anxiety exactly. The two weeks had passed in the specific way that waiting periods passed when you were busy enough not to count the days and then suddenly aware that the counting had been happening underneath everything ...