"Oh, she's a no-one," Jeffrey said, stepping closer as he loosened the tie Heather had fixed and let it fall between his fingers like it meant nothing.
But Joanne saw what he didn't say.
She watched the way his fingers lingered too long at the knot. The way he retied it—not like a man unaffected, but like someone trying to erase fingerprints.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. No-one, he said. But his silence screamed otherwise.
Because if she truly was no one…
Why did he look like he was unraveling?
Why was he so careful not to speak her name?
And most of all, why had he never told Joanne anything at all?
She stood still, her arms folded, watching him. Watching the man she had trusted with the tenderest pieces of herself—her past, her pain, her truth. She had told him who she loved, who she lost. He knew the names of the boys who broke her heart and the ones who never got close.
But him?
He was still a shadow.
She didn't even officially know his name.
