Prologue
THEO
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
My vision blurs as the bathroom door grows dimmer by the second, it’s once brilliant white now slowly fading to gray.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
My body won’t move. My eyes won’t leave the door, and something is slowly trailing down my arm to my fingers. Water?
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
It’s all I can hear as my heart slows its rhythm. The once rapid beat grows softer with each ragged inhale and exhale.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
For the first time in years, I feel peaceful. The numbness seeps in. Why am I so cold?
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
It doesn’t hurt anymore.Shecan’t hurt me anymore.
Chapter One
THEO
“You're up for a promotion, Theo.”
The sudden intrusion makes my head jerk up. Frank Sampson, one of my bosses, steps through the doorway, and I stand to greet him, gesturing to the seat in front of my desk.
Frank’s in his sixties, the little amount of hair he still has is shock white, and his skin is leathery and orange from one too many holidays in the sun, but he’s a good man. He took me under his wing when I first started and has never steered me wrong to date.
“You’re doing great work, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by myself and Michael,” he says as he sits down opposite me.
His smile is broad, and I try not to freak the fuck out, but it happens anyway.
My chest tightens, and my breath hitches in uneven bursts. I steady myself, drawing in air through my nose and releasing it slowly through my mouth as I count to five. Mike, my therapist, keeps telling me it’ssomething I should do more often, but I’ve never listened… until now. The last thing I need is to have an outburst because I can’t cope. Frank doesn’t know about my mental health struggles, and he’s not about to find out now.
