The Socialite and the Scavenger

ghost eating garbage from a dumpster behind

. My former lover, my step-brot

the woman who had stolen my

filled with disgust. He told his assistant to give

tattoo on my wrist-our secret promise of fo

turned his back on me, walking away without a second gla

e Brooklyn Bri

is voice trembling with the results of a new DNA test. The original test, the

pte

good hand deeper into the dumpster, her fingers searching past slimy bags and broken glass. This particular dumpster, behind the

r homeless woman, a ghost haunting the edges of her own past. The city light

mall victory. She sat on the cold pavement, her back against the brick wall of the alley, and used her finger

her temple down to her jaw, pulling her lip into a permanent sneer. Acid. Her left hand was a mangled

a dull, repetitive drum in her head. But every time the hunger became unbe

he ignored it, focusing on the last bite of cheesecake. Sudd

he seat, Mark. I'll

voice. She would know it any

ce hard and handsome. Her step-brother. Her former lover. The CEO of the comp

leaving the office. Ye

woman who had taken everything from h

body was frozen. This was why she had come back. After months of walking, of hitching rides, of s

ast darkness of her life. Maybe he would see her. Maybe h

e died. It was a fool's dream. He was happy. He had moved on

se apart. The cheesecake churned in her stomach. She felt the bile ris

then, a wretched heap of rags on the g

over here,"

a young man in a shar

ir

ut of here. I don't want to see

ng a crisp twenty-dollar bill from his w

you need

oked at Brigham. Her eyes, the only part of her face that was st

had always hated weakness, messiness. He dem

hoked, guttural sound in her throat. She instinctively clutched the half-eaten c

trying to attack you?" Br

t... holding onto a

re now. I don't ha

topped him. A flash of ink on her wrist, visi

e letter 'B'. He had one just like it on his own wrist, hidden under his e

fixed on the tattoo. A flicker

ois

ghost. He said it so softly,

e after stealing from the company, after attacking Eve. That'

e dirt, the matted hair. It couldn't be. The woman he knew

aking his head. "

smissal. The moment of recognition was gone, buried u

he said to Mark,

ise watched him go, the twenty-dollar bill fluttering

e. Just a minor disru

ve for another woman, was the final cu

es. The city hummed around her, indifferent. She had waited for thi

as no

impossibly heavy. She didn't pick up the mo

erate. She knew where she was going. The city lig

in entrance, watching her with suspicion. He mo

"The boss said to let her go. Jus

nodded, st

me on her cheek. She heard Brigham's voice in her head, not the cold one f

El. You

turned out

er. The pain in her body, the gnawing hunger,

st now, and it was

ed down at his wrist, pulling back his cuff to look at th

was a coincidence. That's all. A cruel, strange coincidence. He got into the car,