Chapter 2

I pulled my hand out of his grip. “The client wrote it into her instructions. I'm the only one allowed to hand this to her daughter, in person.”

Cecily's eyes were already rimmed red, her voice shaking. “Yvonne, I know you don't want me touching your clients, but I really didn't mean anything by it. The doctors said this surgery is high-risk. I don't know if I'll even make it back. I just wanted to see one last wish all the way through before I go under.”

She'd barely finished when a sharp crack came from the floor below.

A wooden box had hit the ground, and the eighteen-year-old girl was on her feet.

“Is anyone here actually listening to me?”

Her eyes were red raw. “I don't want a livestream! I don't want strangers watching me read the letter my mom wrote to me!”

The camera beside her was still rolling, and the chat in the stream had already started flooding.

The crew finally caught up and scrambled to shut everything off.

But the girl was already crying. She snatched the letter off the floor, turned, and headed for the door.

Cecily took two steps after her. “Wait, please. I only wanted to put your mother's love into your hands.”

The girl spun around. “Whether my mom loved me is none of your business. She's dead. That doesn't mean her things are here for you to move yourself to tears with.”

Cecily stood frozen, the color draining from her face.

Her mouth opened, still trying to explain, but the girl wiped her eyes and cut in. “And another thing. You're not the person my mom named. She wanted to see Yvonne Carrigan. Who are you to take her place?”

That last line landed, and the crew's expressions shifted.

Cecily stayed rooted where she stood, her eyes flooding fast. “I wasn't trying to take anything from Yvonne. I only……”

“Enough.”

Adrian came up from behind, stepped to Cecily's side, and eased her half a step back behind him.

The movement was effortless, effortless in the way of something done countless times.

“Swapping the executor this time was a company decision. It has nothing to do with Cecily.”

The girl looked at him. “But she started a livestream.”

“She meant no harm.”

Adrian softened his tone. “Your mother spent eighteen years preparing this gift for you. She only thought the feeling behind it was precious and wanted to keep a record of it for you.”

The tears spilled over again, this time out of fury.

“So I'm supposed to thank her too?”

Adrian's brow drew together.

I walked over. “Adrian.”

He turned to look at me.

I switched off the other camera that was still running. “Stop talking. What you should be doing right now is apologizing.”

Cecily lowered her head, tears dropping onto the back of her hand.

Adrian was plainly displeased. “It's Cecily's first execution. She doesn't know the procedures yet. If there's a problem, we deal with it back at the company.”

As he spoke, he put out a hand to block the crew member still filming beside them, tucking Cecily fully behind him.

I watched him do it, and for a moment the room seemed to blur.

Years ago, something like this had happened too.

Back then the company had only just started, and it was my first solo execution of a last wish.

The client had asked me to donate part of his estate to a child who wasn't related to him by blood at all.

When the family found out, they stormed the office and screamed at me on the spot, calling me a con artist, saying I'd teamed up with an outsider to swallow the inheritance.

The dead man's eldest brother even raised a hand to hit me.

The slap never landed on me. Adrian stepped in front, and it came down full force across his face.

His lip split and bled.

I was terrified, tugging at him, asking if it hurt.

He didn't even wipe it away. He just moved me behind him.

“She's carrying out the deceased's wishes. If you have a problem, take it up with me.”

Back then I wasn't as good at handling these things as I am now. Facing an out-of-control family for the first time, my hands had gone cold.

Adrian stayed in front of me the whole time.

Later the family took it to the police station, and he stayed up the entire night with me.

On the way home before dawn, I asked him.

“What if I really did get it wrong?”

He held my hand.

“Then we talk about it once we're home. Out here, I'm on your side first.”

I held onto that line for years.

That was why, no matter how much danger came later, I never once thought of giving up this company.

I'd always believed that if I turned around, Adrian would still be there.

But now, in that same spot.

He was still tucking someone behind him out of habit. It just wasn't me anymore.

“Yvonne, Cecily isn't well. Don't stand here provoking her”

Adrian called out to me.

I came back to myself as he pressed on, frowning. “All your client left was a letter and a few birthday gifts. Cecily just delivered them a different way. Nothing's missing, the letter wasn't lost. When you get down to it, these things aren't worth much anyway. There's no need to blow it all up like this over a few odds and ends a dead woman left behind.”

Slap!