POV: Aurora
The word "neutral" has never made me so suspicious as it does today.
"Noir can't block this request," says Herrera, sitting on the edge of my bed. "The foundation has asked for a follow-up meeting with you. Outside the tower. In a café, with a mediator. Formally, it's voluntary, but..."
"If I don't go, I'm the 'unstable' one," I finish for her.
She doesn't deny it.
"They want to hear your side of the story," she adds. "And make it clear that they 'care about your professional future.'"
I mentally put quotation marks around each phrase.
"I'll go," I say. "I'm not going to give them the satisfaction of painting me as the kidnapped omega who can't speak without permission."
"Conditions," Dante says at last. "One: you go with an escort. Two: public place, no private rooms. Three: no one signs anything there. If they put papers in front of you, you bring them back.
"And four?" I ask.
