The briefing folder in Sylvia’s hand felt suddenly alien, a prop in a play she hadn’t auditioned for. She took the seat across from him, the leather groaning under her weight, and placed the folder on the polished mahogany. It was the only sound in the room. His desk was bare except for a single, sleek laptop and a Montblanc pen laid parallel to its edge. No family photos. No clutter. The order of it was a quiet rebuke to the chaos now screaming in her head.

“My brother didn’t brief me,” she said, her voice cool and even. A lie. Ben had said ‘new client, automotive sector, be sharp.’ He’d omitted the client’s name, his brother’s face, the history sitting six feet away. She kept her eyes on Scott’s, refusing to glance at his hands, the ones she knew could be gentle or demanding. “He provided the basic parameters. Nothing more.”

Scott leaned back, the chair giving a soft creak. His gaze didn’t waver. “So you’re unprepared. Interesting strategy for a partner-track attorney.” He let the phrase hang. It was a scalpel, precise and familiar. He knew exactly where to cut. “Gerdau needs assurances. Souza needs leverage. I need a lawyer who understands the difference between a risk and a mistake.”

“And you think that’s me.” It wasn’t a question.

“I think you’re the best.” He said it simply, a statement of fact. Then he leaned forward again, elbows on the desk, bridging the space between them. The air tightened. His voice dropped, losing its boardroom polish. “This doesn’t have to be personal, Sylvia. Can you separate business from what happened between us?”

Her professional mask was marble. But beneath the table, her left hand clenched in her lap, nails biting crescent moons into her palm. The scent of him—clean cotton and that same faint cedar—wrapped around her. It was the smell of late nights in his apartment, of whispered arguments, of the last morning she’d woken up alone. She looked at the Montblanc pen, perfectly aligned. She looked at her own folder, slightly crooked. She exhaled. “The question, Scott, isn’t whether I can. It’s whether you can.”