Outside Work We... •[TNN One-shots]•

Returned •|| MARJOREECE ||• Pt. 3

Prompt: Everything gets revealed.

Marjorie didn’t sleep. Not really.

She lay in bed, stiff and still, listening to the wind rattle the trees outside and the subtle creaks of a house that no longer felt like hers.

When she finally got up, the only thing waiting for her downstairs was a piece of paper on the counter.

"Gone in early. Meeting at 8.
We can talk after, if you want.
–Reece"

She stared at the note for a full minute before folding it neatly and sliding it into her pocket.

No “love you.”
No “I’m sorry.”
Just facts.

She skipped breakfast. Didn't even make coffee. Her chest felt too hollow for anything warm to settle in it anyway.

°•°•°--**--°•°•°

Marjorie stepped through the nursery doors just after nine, coat barely off her shoulders before she was scanning the room. No sign of Reece.

Odd. He never skipped the morning staff brief, not without telling her. She brushed past the office, paused— then took a step back.

Something sat on the desk.

Not just any desk.

Janice’s.

A cardboard parcel, small. Familiar. The one from the front step. The one that had made Reece look like the floor had opened beneath him.

And there it was again. Sitting innocently. Like it hadn’t just shaken the foundations of everything.

Marjorie blinked at it.

“Autumn,” she said carefully, gesturing toward the desk. “Do you know who put that there?”

Autumn didn’t look up from her work. “I don't know. It was already there when I came in.”

That was a lie.

Marjorie could hear it.

“Do you know who might have put it there?”

Autumn shrugged, far too casually. “Marjorie. I told you that was already there when I came in. How can I possibly know who put that there?"

Marjorie stared at her. But Autumn didn’t flinch, didn’t falter. Her loyalty was clear.

Her brother. Not her best friend.

Fine.

She waited. Sat stiffly in the corner of the office until Mia dropped Charlotte off twenty minutes later. And when she did, Marjorie pounced.

“Mia,” she said, low. “The package on Janice’s desk. Do you know what that's about?”

Mia’s mouth opened— then closed. Her brows twitched. “What package?”

There it was.

The look.

That flicker of guilt in her eyes. Too fast, too instinctive.