Serena:
Dinner lasted longer than I expected… I didn’t know where it was, but somewhere between the food and the wine, the conversation stopped feeling like an interrogation and began to feel, improbably, like something else.
He asked where I had learned to play the piano, and I hesitated before answering. My fingers traced the rim of my glass as if the motion could steady me.
“My mother taught me at first,” I said finally. “Then my father hired someone when he realized I was actually interested. They thought that it was a phase, and my dad normally realized that I lost interest in things quickly. Needless to say, mom was proud to see that I was interested in something for that long.”
Alexander leaned back in his chair and watched me. “So you weren’t always a slave,” he observed.
“No,
