Page 1 of The Midnight Order
Chapter 1
Silver
Fall in New Englandis picturesque. Light bounces off the oranges and mauves as I steer my Tahoe down the winding Massachusetts roads. My GPS is still going strong, even as I get deeper into the sprawling, never-ending forests on both sides.
I don’t know what I was thinking when I told the lawyer I would come personally.
Scratch that. I was thinking I could actually breathe air that wasn’t riddled with pollution and the scents of an overpopulated city.
My phone rings, cutting off the image of the map on my car’s computer screen, and I sigh and tap answer when I see who it is.
“Cara, darling, I’ve only been gone a day. Not even. What is it?”
I click back onto the map in case I miss some hidden turn and end up lost.
“I know I said I wouldn’t call, but John…”
“John knows where I am, and John also has all his faculties to finish the Burnberry account on his own,” I snap, cutting her off.
My left leg moves anxiously back and forth, a telltale sign I need to get off the phone and focus on what’s in front of me, which is currently nothing.
“He’s standing right here,” Cara says, and I can nearly see her wince through the phone.
“What I said stands. John, did you somehow lose all your abilities to close a deal on your own?”
“No, ma’am. All I wanted to know was if you were discounting their closing costs. They mentioned something about a…”
Rolling my eyes, I slow around a curve, my hands gripping the steering wheel tight as my red stiletto nails dig into the black leather. “I said I would discount, yes. Take six grand off the closing costs.”
“Thanks, Boss,” John replies, and I hear him move out of Cara’s office as the door closes behind him.
“Sorry about that. You left no notes to the effect, so I had no choice but to call.”
“Don’t worry about it. Everything else is going fine otherwise?” I ask, my leg shaking more vigorously as nerves build in my body.
“Yup, everything’s fine.”
I wince at her nonchalance.
She knows I hate it when she’s flippant, but I’m trying to be less constrained.
“Thank you, Cara. From here on out, speak to Kris about office matters while I’m gone.”
“Will do. I hope you have a fun time away!” she muses, and I shake my head as I end the call.
Taking a few steadying breaths, I stop my leg’s shaking and focus on the road.
This trip was my therapist’s idea after the lawyer overseeing my great aunt’s estate called and told me I’d been left everything she owned.
Great Aunt Soliel was a wild card, so I can’t imagine she had much to her name.
Either way, I was entering a hardcore phase of burnout, accompanied by a cyclical bout of anxiety and panic attacks, and time away was warranted when the call came through.
Good for me,Dr. Greer told me.Resetting.
It’s what I’m meant to do, but I don’t know how much downtime I’ll have when I’m fighting for my life in the wilderness.
It’s not that dramatic, but going from the Upper East Side to this… It feels like a life-altering change.
