ca did was build a

bvious, an alarm bell for Alex. Instead, she methodically unfriended and blocked every mutual conne

sacre. With each click, a pie

A message on her phone from a number

ittered on her finger. Alex stood beside her, his arm around her waist, a faint, unreadab

d's sycophants, a woman Erica had forgotte

happy couple. The ring. The h

ache in her chest. But it was distant, l

reply. "Cong

essage. Her response was a test for herself.

quaintance from the orchestra at the

id, her face a mixture of surprise and pity. "I heard

you,

w the engagement announcement. It's all so fast." She looked at Erica, her eyes searchin

phantom limb, an ache for some

," Erica said,

abandoned for a wealthy heiress. The story

old truth inside her. He loved the idea of me. And th

anymore. It was just

t, she ha

f rosin and Alex's cologne. He was in the kitchen, making coffee. He turned and smiled at her,

as so real, so palpable,

was dark and cold. The feeling of loss was a physical

as the hope. The belief that s

en he had detonated it from the inside out. The cruelty wasn't

dusty tarp, was a box of her old college textbooks. Music theory, com

ox to the curb for the

Alex's car pulled into the driv

on the curb.

old books

of the tarp, peering inside. He s

t. "No sense keeping things yo

the house, leaving her

f fact. A confirmation of her new reality. Her old life, her old s

needed. There was nothing left h