An Acceptable Distance

Ezra is used to performing-polite smiles, perfect posture, the right silence at the right time. It's how you survive being born into a family that treats reputation like religion.

But Ezra isn't living that life anymore. She's working nights at a Boston dive bar, taking classes, building something of her own-until a man named Rhett starts showing up at her bar with the kind of attention that doesn't feel like flirting.

He watches. He listens. He never explains why he's there.

When Ezra is forced back into her family's world for a black-tie benefit, the distance she's worked so hard to keep begins to collapse. And the closer she gets, the clearer it becomes: some families don't just protect their image.

They protect their secrets.