A Dead Lover's Lingering Shadow

ost is bound to the one who let her die-until th

pte

Phelp

something metallic-an abandoned textile factory, just like the news said. My head throbbed. I tasted blood. Garth Figueroa, a name I' d only

raspy, like gravel grinding. "Heard you

ierced through the dull ache in my belly. Ho

ars. Five years I thought about this. Thought about him. And then I thought about you." H

widened. He was holding something-a vest, thick and heavy, covered in blin

" Garth chuckled. "But the messag

scream, but a gag was roughly shoved into my mouth, choking off the sound. The vest clicked into place, snug a

regards. Tell him this is just the beginning." He wrenched the gag out. "Now, make the call."

as a spider silk, tried to unfurl in my chest. He would come. He had to.

mpatient, blasted through the speaker. It wasn't the voic

ped, my voice raw, "I'm in trouble

hone, his grin widen

of my reach. "Erykah, seriously? You couldn't pick a worse time. Ivy jus

bomb, but from the familiar, crushing w

ivious. "Always with the drama. Every time I try to focus on something

9:15. Grow up? My life was ticking aw

ed, tears stinging my eye

e rising. "I'm done with this. Ivy needs me right

ile, coming from Arthur's end. Ivy. Her w

y, floated through the phone. "Is it Erykah again

thur said, his tone softening instantly when he spoke to her

cattering like glass across

he eerie silence of the factory a

d. Even for you." He looked at me, a strange flicker o

his cronies turned and walked away, their footsteps echoing into the gl

d. I had believed in us, in him. I had convinced myself that his strange loyalty to Ivy was just a leftover from a traumatic childhood, a brotherly bond. He' d spun tales of Ivy, his foster sister, hi

y noise" outside her apartment, the "bad dream" that required Arthur to sleep on her couch, the "urgent plumbing leak"

he'd say, his eyes distant. "She's been t

ide. Once, he missed our engagement party. Our engagement party. He was with Ivy, comforting her after she claimed to have

on he lavished on Ivy, he'd snap. "You're jealous, Erykah. That's not a

l blow, stripping away years of self-deception. Arthur Holmes never loved me, not in the way I loved him. He loved the i

er, not from a physical wound, but from a deeper, more profound hurt. I pulled out my own phone, the

sted loving you. We are ove

uated only by the relentless ticking. I closed my eyes, a single te