y and slow. She returned to her room at the end of the hallway-she had suffered a few mi

ar, you're back. They recovered your personal belongings from the car,

in her mouth. Nothing mattered anymore. She just wanted to leave-leave thi

ses' station, Mark Foster appeared beside her

e smooth and emotionless like a machine. "A new phone. He also

ered surviving on cheap sandwiches for an entire month, saving every penny just to b

ed it." she

from luxury boutiques at his feet. "These are from

ows. It felt like a deliberate insult. He thought he could buy her silence, obedience, and depar

, her voice frighteningly ca

e gifts like these before. He opened his mouth to argue, but she had alre

bag, throwing away old receipts and crumpled tissues. Her fingers brushed against

the back panel was bent at an unnatural angle, and the metal casing had caved inward as if someone had deli

f his way to erase her existence, destroying every piece of evidence that proved she had once

a terrible misunderstanding. Every absurd hope she had clung to shat

into the trash can. It landed with a dull thud, like a peri

over the phone. When he heard that Seraphina had refused

ants me to chase after her and beg for

oner or later, Seraphina would come back an

the sidewalk and breathed

ne and a new SIM card. Standing on the sidewalk, she activated the phone and entered only two numbers into

ng she did wa

ing him the address of the penthouse apartm

the gifts he had given her, not the life he had lived with her, but the pieces of herself she h

ity as familiar streets blu

eyes had become sharp and resolute. She was no longer s