She sat alone in Sven’s study with a stack of books to read and a tray of refreshments courtesy of Sebastian. For the past few days, Sven had been busy with his own work, and their tutoring had been put on hold. She went to Dune Industry by herself in the morning and spent the whole day perusing documents Sven wanted her to read. After work she drove to visit Robby and returned home by early evening. She ate dinner alone before shuttering herself in Sven’s mancave to study. Most of the stuff she tried to comprehend still didn’t make sense to her, though at least now she understood some medical jargon. The sky was pregnant with rain when she had pulled into the building’s garage. By nine o’clock, a full-blown thunderstorm raged outside. Annalise flinched each time a strike of lightning lit the horizon followed by an ear-splitting boom. She hated thunder to the bone. She had suffered from astraphobia ever since she was a child, and it only got worse as she grew older.
