Even as she was speaking, there was a gentle shudder, involuntarily running through her body, which I could sense in my palm now, squeezing her left s...oulder gently.I know it sounds predictable but the chemistry was now full and overpowering when I told her’ hey, do you know you are both intelligent and beautiful’? Rani stiffened suddenly and I could sense there was just less than half a feet of distance between us. The fan above our head was whirring away and that was the only sound audible in. One that could very well get him executed, or worse. The desk itself was old enough to fetch a small fortune in any major city. He didn't touch anything on the desk, just looked. All of the papers were in an archaic form of Elvish, but not High Elvish. He scanned the walls, searching for any discrepancies that might reveal a secret passage. A chill raced down his spine. He whirled around to face... an empty room. There was no one here. He crossed behind her desk and sat wearily into her chair.. . ick.Then Gene returned from another business trip. As usual, Stephanie kept to her room. Sneaking downstairs for food only when Gene and her mother were busy. There must have been a lull in his business because he stayed for a full week.On the plus side, Gene’s longer stay completely reset her mother’s bond. The morning her father left, Mom was so cheerful, they should have eaten waffles for breakfast. A week without Jason left Stephanie with a pounding headache. While Mom tweaked the. He started smoking a lot more of it. Pretty soon he was keeping himself loaded up all day long. And then, about three weeks ago, Cedric started finding syringes in the garbage cans when he cleaned." And you still didn't think it was a problem?" Pauline asked. "When were you planning on telling us about this?" I was planning on an intervention soon," Crow said. "In fact, I meant to have done it by now. After all, we need to get him into rehab and dried out before the tour. But... well, he's been.