The way he genuinely laughed made her feel fuzzy inside, successful. She’d doubted he’d done much laughing in his recent years, so being the source, though it was mockery, was an achievement to her. She couldn’t help but laugh with him as he did so, shrugging and holding her hands up to defend herself. “I meant the quality of the prosthetic, not the initial incident, geesh.” She shook her head at him with a smile. She’d begun to gain a headache, as she’d earned it when she had her head slammed against the wall. But she’d had worse, it was no big whoop. She tended to earn them from her lack of sleep, anyways, so she was bound to have one eventually.<br/><br/>As she stared at the picture frame in her hands, she could feel Ethan’s presence behind her as he peered over her shoulder at the picture. She looked up to him as he explained the reasoning for the photo, and she was surprised when he described the young boy as his son. She set the picture back down, fully tuned to his words at this point. She was able to see his misty eyes, but she decided not to comment on it. She recognized his attempt at him using the lie of his son was taken away by his wife, though she could see right through it. People don’t react to a loss of custody the way he seemed to, or so she thought. This was a deeper pain. The way he kept referring to his son in the past tense was a clear giveaway as to where his child actually was. He was gone, with his wife, she assumed. Her gaze softened as he spoke, and she nodded in understanding, giving him a sad smile. She turned away from the picture to face him instead, looking down in remorse. Losing family is one thing, losing a child is another.<br/><br/>“He’s really handsome, he looks exactly like you.” She pointed out with a smile, attempting to bring some form of relief from the grief she has rekindled; she felt terribly for bringing back those memories, and there was no reason for her to try and dig deeper. She risked pushing him away, as they barely knew one another. He had no reason to share his deepest darkest secrets with her, or his pain. “This is a cute picture, keep it up. My parents don’t have any pictures of me up, they’re all just pictures of my brother.” She rolled her eyes with a forced laugh, an amused smile on her face. She was used to being invisible, unnoticed. She hardly mattered, she was just there to make them money. She wanted to leave, she had spoken of such a venture numerous times, she just didn’t know where she would go. Who she would go to, who would take in a Montgomery who wasn’t in the business of screwing others over? No one would.<br/><br/>She checked the clock behind him, frowning when it was growing close to her conference time. She’d much rather skip and stay here, but she still had work to attend to. “So, back to our earlier conversation, what do you say? You want to work with me? I’ll cover whatever you owe right now and you can just start earning yourself a paycheck.” She walked away from the desk, knowing he probably didn’t want to have to stare at the picture all day. She walked back to the stone counter and took her water that he had offered, sipping it. She wasn’t in horrible shape, she’d be fine to go back home. They never noticed her anyways, why would they notice the bruise that was forming on her cheek? Or under her eye? They wouldn’t, that was a fact.