The week moved differently than other weeks.
Not faster — Mailah had expected faster. Instead it moved with a quality of attention she hadn't experienced before, each day carrying a specific weight that made it distinct from the one before it.
Monday: Grayson received a letter from the realm regarding Theron's sentencing. He read it at the breakfast table with the coastal gardening book closed beside him, his expression doing nothing during the reading and then doing something very brief and very controlled when he set it down.
"Final?" she asked.
"Final," he said, and picked up his tea.
She didn't ask further. He didn't offer. They sat with it for a moment, no celebration, just the quiet acknowledgment of a chapter being formally closed.
Later she found him in the courtyard standing in front of the greenhouse frame with his hands in his coat pockets. Not assessing it. Just standing with it.
She didn't go out. She watched from the kitchen window and let him have it.
