pte

D

The hallway stretched endlessly before me, each step echoing in my ears like a countdown to something I couldn't yet name. My

God, I'd actually take

d still trapped in that moment of revelation. A borrowed necklace. Two years. All of it, every degrading moment, every sacrifice, every piece

down when I he

ria

thought sounded like coming home, now grated agai

I'd worn for eighteen months. The mask settled over my face with practiced eas

e. His friends clustered around him-Marcus with his perpetual smirk, Kieran checking his phone with disinterest, and tw

e woman keeping his bed warm un

d curves I'd never have. Her hand rested possessively on Damien's arm, her perfectly manicured nails a shade

ould have destroyed me. T

e following like courtiers attending their king. "I was just telling

o hear the mockery underneath. I'd just b

owncast the way he preferred. "I wanted to ma

d grating. "How sweet. Damien's w

hest, but I swallowed it down. Not

moment, I thought he wanted to hold mine. Then I saw the expectation in his ey

. He wanted

r I'd dropped upstairs, soup se

ice sharpened. "Don't tell me you came

so good at lying, at pretending, at being whateve

racing. I could say I left it in the c

ck to face him. The grip was tight enough to hurt, but I'd

gined I'd seen sixteen years ago in a fever dream. Had I really convinced myself this

s clicking against the marble. Behind me, I heard Marcus say something that made the o

, nails biting into my palms

he remaining warmth through the metal, and stared at it for a long moment. Chicken soup. I'd spent two hours making

I played the devoted wife deliverin

d up from my chest wa

the bottom, a tableau of judgment and casual cruelty. Adina had pressed even

said, holding ou

ediately unscrewed the lid. Steam rose from

ed a small amount into the lid. H

enough for his friends to hear.

radicting him would be a mistake, and I needed to play this carefully. I needed to

etting my voice crack just

He cut me off, his voice rising. "I ask you for on

, but I kept my expression rem

ieran said, sounding b

before-the pleasure he took in this. In humiliating me. In breaking me down in front of his

g, he tilted the thermos and poured the

. Vegetables and noodles stuck to the fabric, sliding down to pool at my feet. The the

it properly this time. And Adriana?" He stepped closer, his voice dropping

umiliation, and felt something ins

the death of whatever desperate, delusional thing had kept me chained to this

"Man, that's har

purred. "She always is

friends in turn. One of them had my necklace. One of the

d smile that I'd perfect

tly. "I'll make mo

asted lik