Page 93 of At First Spark
Nolan straightens slightly.
“I’m talking about the project.”
“No,” Hadley says. “You’re not.”
She says it with certainty.
“You’re talking about her,” she adds, nodding toward Lark, “like you forgot she gets to make all the decisions.”
Nolan’s face tightens. “I didn’t forget.”
“Then start acting like it.”
“I’m trying to keep her from getting hurt.”
“So is everyone in this room,” Hadley says. “You’re just the only one doing it like she’s a problem to solve.”
Silence. Thick and heavy.
Hadley steps closer, but with the kind of confidence that comes from knowing exactly where she stands.
“You walked in here and decided you knew what was best,” she continues. “That you knew how this was going to go.”
“That’s my job.”
“No,” she says. “That’s your problem.”
Bailey lets out a quiet breath behind her. Lila shifts her weight. Ivy doesn’t move at all.
Nolan’s gaze flicks past Hadley. To Lark, to me, then back again.
“You’re all making this more complicated than it needs to be,” he points out.
Hadley huffs out a laugh.
“Or you’re finally realizing you don’t control it.”
I take a step back, enough to create space, because this is tipping too far. Too fast. And right now, this isn’t just mine to handle.
Lark slowly lets out a deep breath that sounds like it’s been buried in her chest for decades, then steps forward. Her movement shifts everything.
“This is my project,” she says.
Her voice isn’t raised, but soft in a terrifying way. She looks at Nolan first, then at me, then at Hadley, and something settles in her expression.
“If I stay at Holt’s house on the farm,” she says, “that’s my choice.”
Her gaze flicks to mine, just for a second, then back to Nolan.
“If I work with you,” she adds, “that’s also my choice. Even though you’re still contracted with my mother and Michael.”
That one draws a line I don’t like, one I don’t get to argue.
“And if this gets complicated,” she finishes, “that’s on me.”
Silence, then Nolan nods once.
He looks at Lark for a long second. Long enough that the anger in his face turns into something older. Something tired.
