I tear through the flat, barefoot and unbrushed and all nerves. Kitchen—empty. Living room—empty. Even the stupid corner of the hallway where he keeps dumping his boots instead of the rack?Empty.
No coat. No gear. No sound.
Just me.
And the ugly slap of realization.
I didn’t wake up to a kiss or a grunt or even one of his weird-ass protein shake smells. I woke upalone.
And he’sgone.
My knees hit the floor before I can think.
Just… stunned.
There’s a single object on the low-slung coffee table. Small. Matte-black. Square-edged.
A data chip.
I reach for it like it’s going to bite me. Like touching it might make this less real.
When the compad blinks awake, the chip auto-loads. No passcode. No password.
Just… a doc.
Titled:
“For Alaina. If You’re Reading This, I Couldn’t Do It Face-to-Face.”
My stomach churns like I’ve swallowed broken glass.
I click it.
And the list opens. All the tenderness, raw emotion, and vulnerability I couldn’t say aloud or even over tet.
At the bottom, there’s no sign-off. No “love, Troka.” No plea. Just one sentence.
“Wait for me. Please. I swear I’ll come back to you.”
And that’s it.
Just… silence.
And me.
Collapsed on the floor like someone just took out a structural beam in my chest.
My throat closes around a sob that has claws. I can’t stop it. It rips through me like a wildfire breaking containment. I shove the compad off the table and it clatters to the floor, skittering across the tile like it’s trying to get away from the sound of me coming undone.
“Damn you,” I whisper, choking. “You big, stupid, stubborn,beautifulasshole.”
Heknew.
And still… he stayed.
Still played peekaboo with Caelix like his heart didn’t shatter a little more every time he looked into those golden eyes. Still fixed the cabinet hinges and replaced the diaper bin. Still kept showing up.
Even when I didn’t make it easy.
