I sit on the edge of the bath and scroll until I find the number I already know will be there. No name. No label. Just digits.
I’m ready.
I send it before my brain can argue with my hands.
The reply comes almost immediately.
I know.
No questions. No instructions. Just arrogant confirmation.
I slip the phone into my pocket, flush the toilet for show, then step back into the room. Everyone is still asleep. The sight of them hits harder now – unguarded, open, trusting in a way I no longer can afford to be.
I take one last look, willing my hardened heart not to crack.
This is the only way, I tell myself.
Then I leave.
The corridor smells like disinfectant and old carpet. The lift ride feels too slow and too fast all at once. When the doors open into the lobby, I don’t hesitate.
Cold morning air hits my face as I step outside.
And immediately I know I’m not alone.
“Kayla.” The voice comes from the shadows to my left.
I freeze.
Snow steps out of the recessed doorway like he’s been carved there, not emerging so much as resolving into shape. Same clothes as whatever day it was that he left; it feels like a lifetime ago now. Same controlled posture. Same eyes that never quite stop moving, cataloguing the world even when they’re looking straight at you.
For half a second, relief flares hot and traitorous in my chest.
Then anger smothers it.
“Where have you been?” I demand.
The question lands clean and flat between us. That split-second pause before a bomb detonates.
Snow opens his mouth.
Closes it.
The silence stretches, deliberate and infuriating.
He studies me like this is a negotiation, like the right angle of approach might still exist.
I let out a short, incredulous laugh at his silence. “You don’t get to do that. Not now.”
“You shouldn’t be leaving,” he says instead. “Not yet.”
My hands curl into fists at my sides. “Answer my question.”
He glances past me, scanning the street, the parked cars, the corners of the building. Old habits. Tactical thinking where honesty should be.
“I can’t,” he says finally.
Something inside me goes very still.
