Page 220 of Their Arrangement
Everything.
I didn’t take the ring out. But I didn’t put it away either. I closed the drawer slowly. But this time?
I didn’t lock it.
35
CLOE
The city was stillon Sundays.
Still in the way grief settles into your bones when no one is looking. Still in the way guilt makes the air taste sharper. Everything moved slower. Sound echoed longer. And shame stuck to your skin in places you couldn’t scrub clean.
I wore Wolfe’s hoodie.
Not for warmth.
Just for the weight.
Like if I wrapped myself in his scent one more time, it might stop me from doing what I came here to do.
It didn’t.
The fabric was soft.
Familiar.
The cuffs were stretched from me fisting them in the dark the night before. It still smelled like him. But it didn’t feel like safety anymore. It felt like a memory I was about to ruin.
The building lobby was empty.
Security gave me a nod.
Not a second glance.
Because why would they?
I was hers.
His.
Theirs.
The girl from the footage.
The girl with bruises and silence and borrowed clothes.
The girl who walked like she might break if someone looked at her too hard.
The elevator ride stretched.
Too slow.
Too quiet.
Each floor a new excuse to turn around. Each ding a warning I didn’t listen to. I watched the numbers climb. Felt the cold metal railing against my back. Held the edges of the hoodie closed like it was armor.
But it wasn’t.
