Chapter 97 - CH 95 - The Ghost in the Machine

The new equilibrium was a delicate ecosystem. They tended to it with the wary attention of gardeners spotting the first signs of blight. The folding screen remained, but Amelia no longer hid behind it. She worked at the kitchen table, the sunflower in its jar a silent, sunward-turning companion. Adrian would move around her, making coffee, sketching crop rotations, the tap of her keys and the scratch of his pencil a new, syncopated rhythm. They were learning the grammar of coexistence.