Page 124 of Override

It sounds inevitable.

Chapter 25

Maeve

I don't think I've ever hated this house more.

Not because of the guards. Not because of the cameras. Not even because Ronan has barely spoken to me in two days.

It's because there is nowhere to hide from my own thoughts.

I drift from room to room with a basket of laundry balanced against my hip, folding clothes that don't need folded and reorganizing drawers that were already organized.

Anything to stay busy. Anything to stop replaying the fundraiser.

It doesn't work.

The memory follows me anyway.

I can still see my mother's face. Still feel her arms wrapping around me. Still hear her laugh when she pulled me into the conversation and immediately started introducing me to everyone around her.

For ten minutes I had felt normal.

Not Mrs. Gallagher. Not somebody being watched. Not somebody being managed.

Just Maeve.

The feeling had been so unexpected that I'd nearly cried.

Then Ronan had appeared.

I close a drawer harder than necessary. The sound echoes through the room. Immediately I sigh. Because now I'm angry.

Again.

The emotion has become disturbingly familiar lately.

I move toward the window. The gardens stretch across the estate below.

Perfect. Controlled. Maintained.

Just like everything else here. My chest tightens.

Because I remember exactly what happened next.

The room. The silence. The way every conversation had stopped when Ronan walked in.

The way my mother's smile vanished. The way my stomach dropped before he'd even spoken.

"Maeve." Just my name. Nothing else.

And somehow I'd known.

I rest my forehead against the cool glass.

Because that's the part that won't leave me alone.

Not his anger. Not the embarrassment. The apology. The way it had immediately fallen from my mouth. Instinctively. Like I'd already learned the correct response.