Page 135 of Beautiful Ruins
We’d just voted.And that vote meant something.Because it wasn’t just about Archie.
It was about what kind of monsters we were willing to be.And what kind we refused to become.
38
Raze
The dining room filled slowly with sunlight as the shutters lifted automatically, letting the pale warmth spill across the long table.Outside, the pool shimmered in the calm courtyard, water catching the early light like polished glass.
Inside, breakfast had already been laid out.
The maid moved silently between the kitchen and dining room, placing the last of the plates on the table with the kind of efficiency that made it clear she’d been doing this long before any of us woke up.
Coffee.Eggs.Fresh bread.Fruit.
The small rituals of a normal life.
I sat at the head of the table with my coffee and watched the two women who had turned this house into something resembling a home.
Izzy sat by my side, hair still loose from sleep, sunlight catching the soft copper strands that had escaped her braid.She was reading something on her phone with the kind of concentration that meant she’d probably forget to eat unless someone reminded her.
Tone sat beside her, already halfway through a cup of coffee like it was a medical necessity.Which, knowing her, it probably was.
“You’re staring.”
“He tends to do that a lot,” Tone pointed out.
She set her cup down and glanced between us.Then she leaned back in her chair and stretched slightly, rolling tension from her shoulders.
“I actually have news.”
That got my attention.Tone rarely announced things without reason.
“I have a job interview later today.”
Izzy blinked.“Really?”
“For a post in Madrid.”
That got both of us looking at her.
Tone smiled slightly, for once looking uncertain.
The thought of her going to Madrid sat in my head longer than it should have.
Madrid.
Spain wasn’t exactly the end of the world.It wasn’t like she was disappearing into some war zone or vanishing into a country with no way to reach her.A flight, a few hours, a passport stamp—that was all it really was.
But sitting there at the table, listening to her talk about it like it was nothing, it felt a lot farther away than that.
It felt like distance.
I leaned back slightly in my chair, studying her.
“You’re serious about this.”
Tone looked up from her coffee, already sensing the shift in my voice.She’d known me long enough to hear the part I wasn’t saying.
