Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

woke up. He went to work. He stayed at work. He did his job, and he did his
job well. Sometimes he lost. Most times he didn’t. There was a reason the
firm had been as successful as it was. What else was there to life aside from
success? Nothing, really.
Sure, he’d had no friends. No family. He had no partner, no one to grieve
over him as he’d lain in an expensive coffin in the front of a ridiculous
church, but that shouldn’t be the only measure of a life well-lived. It was all
about perspective. He’d done important things, and in the end, no one could
have asked any more of him.
He said, “I lived.”
“You did,” Hugo said, still holding onto the teacup. “That doesn’t answer
my question.”
Wallace scowled. “You’re not my therapist.”
“So you’ve said.” He lifted the cup and poured the tea out into the sink. It
looked as if it pained him to do so. The dark liquid splattered against the sink
before Hugo turned on the faucet and washed away the dregs.
“Is this … is this how you are with the others?”
Hugo switched off the faucet and set the teacup gently in the sink.
“Everyone’s different, Wallace. There’s no one way to go about this, no
uniform rules in place that can be applied to every single person like you
who comes through my doors. That wouldn’t make sense because you’re not
like everyone else, just as they’re not you.” He looked out the window above
the sink. “I don’t know who or what you are yet. But I’m learning. I know
you’re scared, and you have every right to be.”
“Damn right I am,” Wallace said. “How could I not be?”
Hugo smiled quietly as he turned toward Wallace. “That might be the most
honest thing you’ve said since you got here. Would you look at that? You’re
making progress. That’s great.”
The praise shouldn’t have warmed him as much as it did. It felt unearned,
especially when he didn’t want it. “Mei said you had another Reaper before
her.”
Hugo’s smile faded as his expression hardened. “I did. But that discussion
is off-limits. It has nothing to do with you.”
Wallace took a step back, and for the first time since he could remember,
he wanted to apologize. It was strange, this, made worse by how hard it