As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Gina's carefully crafted smile vanished. The calm façade she had worn like armor throughout the evening crumbled the moment she was out of Alexander's sight.
An unsettling knot twisted in her chest, unfamiliar and suffocating.
The entire meeting had felt like walking a tightrope—every word measured, every glance calculated. Yet despite all her effort, she had left his apartment with a storm of emotion churning inside her.
Being compared to someone he once knew was disturbing enough, but learning that Eric—her Eric—was his son? That revelation had shaken something loose inside her.
She climbed into her car, hands trembling slightly as she gripped the steering wheel.
Without a destination in mind, she began to drive, the city lights blurring outside her window. Her thoughts were a tangled mess of confusion and suspicion. Did he recognize me? Or is he playing some game? Pretending he doesn't?
