Five seconds.
Ten.
No sound.
No movement.
The rational part of my brain tells me that her trip has just been extended. She’ll be back later tonight, and when I wake up tomorrow, it’ll be like she never left. And then everything will be fine. I’ll be fine.
But the other part of me has eyes. It knows what I’m seeing. I know what is on the other side of the window, and every inch of me is saying that therationalpart is fucking delusional.
White-hot rage crawls beneath my skin as I stare at the empty dining room.Empty. No chairs, no table, no fake fucking plant.Empty.
No.
No.
Bella would never leave me.Never. She said she would see me today, and she wouldn’t lie about that, would she?
No.
No, she never lets me down in any way that counts.
She’s always been there for me—the light at the top of the basement, the first bite after days of starvation, the one who doesn’t make me feel like running.
Bella wouldn’t leave. She just wouldn’t.
I sprint around the outside of the house, checking one window after the other. Empty. Every one of them. But the final nail in the coffin is her room.Empty. My drawings aren’t on the walls, the bed is gone, and Mickey Mouse is nowhere to be seen.
No.
No, no, no.
They can’t just take her away from me. They can’t.
My feet take me to the back porch, the last place I saw her, and try the ranch slider, but it doesn’t budge. I need to get inside. Ihaveto get inside. I have to check. I don’t know; maybe she’s in there somewhere. Maybe she managed to get away and hide in a closet.
I have to.
I have to. I have to. I have to.
She—
No, she can’t be gone. Irefuseto believe it. I can’t—No.She has to come back.
I don’t feel the glass shattering beneath my knuckles. With each pummel, another shard pierces my skin, and another drop of blood drops onto the floor. It isn’t until Ifeelit. Not the pain or the ache. The absence ofit. The disappearance of the itch.
Then I see it. The one thing I refuse to take off laying on the floor amongst the drops of crimson. The last thing I got from her.
The bracelet.
I broke it.
Bella’s bracelet.
Chapter 5
ROMAN
