I don’t know what the hell to do next.
Because this? This is just the start.
And it’ll actually be two full years before I hear anything about her again.
Two years before I realize I didn’t just lose her in this moment...
I lost her in life.
And in death.
THREE
Greesha
TWO YEARS AFTER BREAKUP
Everything’s blurry now.
I don’t think I have enough blood left in my body to help my brain understand what’s happening. The edges of my vision pulse. The cold seeping into my bones feels...final.
And the worst part?
All of this could’ve been avoided.
If I had just stayed.
Not with Advik—but in the city. In the normalcy I built with my own hands.
Instead of running out on him. Instead of vanishing into the shadows. Instead of spending six brutal months putting my body back through hell until it became a machine again. Learning a new language like it was my mother tongue. Instead of volunteering for thissuicide missionI knew could end like this—
I should’ve stayed.
I should’ve broken up with him. Andstayed, dammit.
But now... I won’t just be dead on paper.
I’ll be dead. Period.
A slap cracks across my face and my vision snaps back into focus. There he is.
My slimy, sadistic husband.
Karim.
I don’t know who compromised me. But when I find out, they’re dead.
I’ll claw my way out of the grave just to finish them off.
“Tell me,nafasam,” Karim croons in broken English. “You tell now, and I kill you fast.”
Nafasam. My breath.
As if calling me something sweet will erase what he’s done in the past twenty-two hours.
He isn’t a patient man.
I’ve known that since the sham of a wedding—the one where I was the only one who didn’t get a choice.
