I Serve Somewhere‪.‬

He told her she'd find someone who wants this. She found somewhere instead.

At quarter past five, six mornings a week, Vera unlocks a Palo Alto bakery and starts the ovens. At six-fifteen she carries a tray up thirteen steps to her sleeping daughters. At two she counts the drawer to the dollar. On Wednesday nights she drives into the hills, where an old house keeps different hours, and serves there too — under rules she keeps as exactly as she keeps the counter. Nobody in one life knows the other exists.

Then the baker's hands begin to fail, and his heart sets a deadline: the shop must change hands. His wife has watched Vera for nineteen years and is certain of what she's seen. She cannot see a future for Vera there. She is wrong about one thing only.

Vera doesn't fight. She bakes, she serves, she notices everything. And the year decides in her favor.

Vera never tells you what she feels. You will always know.

I Serve Somehwere. is a novel of work, motherhood, inheritance, and chosen submission. A complete standalone in the Sterne Universe. Not a romance. Explicit content; for mature readers.