Chapter One
The day started withLena Miller’s car dying.Why did it have to fail her at the most inconvenient possible moment in her life?The dashboard blinked once, twice, then went dark in the middle of Lily Road traffic.
Her father’s old beige colored Toyota Corol
la reminded her of a stubborn workhorse.It had always been stubborn, somehow still alive through sheer spite, but finally it had decided it was done.
“Come on,” she whispered, pressing the ignition again.
There was nothing but a hollow click.She growled softly under her breath in frustration.She sat there for a full minute, her forehead against the steering wheel.
He had given her that car in her second year of university, the keys dropped into her palm like a quiet promise.“You’ll be okay, even when I’m not around to make sure of it,” he had said.
Now it was just a dead machine on a hot road, and she had a delivery.It wasn’t just any delivery.
The sealed compliance package was in a thick envelope, had embossed insignia, and urgent routing.It only meant that someone powerful was waiting on the other end to receive it.
So she did what she never did unless absolutely necessary, she took the subway.
The station seemed to swallow her whole.The heat immediately hit full blast.Damp sweat soon clung to the back of her neck, making her terribly uncomfortable.Then the noise and the press of bodies followed.
It was rush hour, so they were crammed shoulder to shoulder, elbow to rib, breath to breath.She tightened her grip on the courier bag slung across her body.
Don’t panic, Lena.Breathe in and out.
Still, the air didn’t feel clean down there.It felt recycled, chewed, exhausted.Someone bumped into her hard enough to knock her half a step sideways.
“Sorry,” a voice muttered, already gone.
Her chest tightened.The walls seemed to inch closer.No, not this and not now, she thought to herself.
She stared at the station map until the letters blurred, forcing herself to read the arrows like they were instructions for survival.She counted to ten, inhaled, then exhaled, or tried to.Her lungs forgot how to cooperate.
The edges of her vision started to fuzz, like the world was losing signal.
She pressed her palm to the metal railing and told herself it was cold and real.Something that could anchor her.
You are fine.You are fine.You are just in a crowded station.It didn’t help.The pressure from the crowd continued to press against her.
When the train finally arrived, she almost didn’t get on, but she did anyway.She thought it would get better, but inside the carriage, it was worse.It took her a second to realize why.
It was the absence of space, the lack of escape routes.The way bodies stood too close without meaning to, shoulder straps brushing, sleeves grazing, strangers pretending not to exist in each other’s orbit.
She found a standing spot near the door and gripped the pole so tightly her knuckles ached.The train lurched forward, and with it came last night’s shocking turn of events, uninvited and unavoidable.
Liam’s apartment door had been slightly ajar when she arrived.That was the first wrong thing.
She remembered thinking maybe he’d forgotten to lock it again.Maybe Cassie had come over early.She thought of other explanations save for the truth that she wished she hadn’t stumbled upon.
It was Cassie’s laugh she heard first, then Liam’s low and familiar voice.Something about it was different.He spoke in a soft tone which he hadn’t used with her in weeks.
Then she caught sight of them, entwined like mating snakes.She hadn’t screamed at them, or demanded explanations from Liam.That was the strange part.
She had just stood there, keys still in her hand, watching her life rearrange itself into something she didn’t recognize.Cassie saw her first.
Her face had gone pale instantly.“Lena.”
Liam had said nothing at all, and that silence hurt the most.