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Why don’t I want to do the thing that makes the most sense? And the thing that will give me my best chance to survive?
I’m reaching my fingers to touch it when a knock on the door makes me startle. I glance at the microwave clock.
Has it been twenty minutes already?
“Pizza’s here.” A man calls from the other side. “Good night.”
Aden.
He ordered me apizza?
I drift over to the front door.
After peeking through the peephole and finding the hallway empty, I open the door. On the floor outside is a large pizza, a bottle of soda, and a small white box.
I scoop everything in my arms, carry it inside, and deposit it on the kitchen counter before going back to triple lock the front door.
I open the pizza box first. My mouth waters at the sight of a meat lover’s pizza piled high with oozy cheese, pepperoni, and sausage, fresh from the oven. Leaving the lid open, I move onto the mysterious small white box. A thick slab of double chocolate cake makes my stomach grumble happily.
My gaze returns to the picture on the wall of three smiling men who are anything but happy.
I eat standing up in the kitchen. The first two slices go down so fast they barely touch the sides. When my belly feels full in a way it hasn’t for the longest time, I wander back over to the framed picture, eating my next slice slowly.
Who are you? And why do I want to trust you?
16
DARIEL
The woman with blue eyes too big for her face holds the front of her coat closed as she threads her way through the tables, her gaze unmoving from Aden’s back.
Like a lifeline.
She doesn’t blink, and she never falls more than a handful of steps behind him.
As if she’s afraid of losing him.
Or that he’ll leave her behind.
I watch as she follows Aden out of the front entrance, the foyer through another camera, and finally disappears from view.
Then I grab the remote from the desk and rewind the footage, watching as, in super speed, she and Aden back up the stairs.
And for the fifth time, I press play.
Sitting back in my chair, the leather creaks as I recline.
My eyes search her face as she emerges from the apartment door. I hit pause at that moment. Thatexactmoment when it feels like she’s looking right at me.
I scan large blue eyes filled with shadows so dark that Aden’s words ripple through my mind.Damaged, but not broken.
Even if Aden hadn’t told me what he’d seen: the scars, the cut, the suffering, I’d know it with one glance in those eyes.
I lose myself in them. Something that takes effort.Serious effort. I haven’t lost myself in anything since…her.
Monica.
The woman who brought us closer together than we’d ever been, right before she cracked us so wide apart she nearly broke us completely.
