We played the perfect couple for his teachers. And somewhere in the performance, it stopped being fake.
The parent-teacher conference was scheduled for Thursday at three. Elara had been dreading it for days, though she couldn't articulate exactly why. Maybe because it felt like a test they hadn't studied for. Maybe because performing normalcy in front of strangers felt harder than living it behind closed doors.
Maybe because calling it a "parent-teacher conference" instead of "surrogate checking in on contracted child" felt like another lie she was expected to maintain.
Kairos picked her up from the house at 2:45, dressed in one of his crisp business suits that made him look every inch the successful CEO. She'd agonized over what to wear—settling finally on a simple dress that said "respectable mother" without trying too hard.
