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I’m going to put in a load of laundry and then get in the shower. I’m still dealing with the period from hell but it’s not as bad as it was last week. At least now I’m not in constant pain. It will probably amp up again before it ends, but I can’t worry about that.

I’ve been dealing with this since I was a teenager, so it’s just part of my life. I was starting to miss sharing physical intimacy with Rage, but he took care of that in the shower last night.

I smile just thinking about it.

Then I see it.

Another package.

God fucking dammit.

Why can’t Roger give up already? I’ve got a new boyfriend and moved on. There’s nothing he can do to change my mind so what’s the point of this? Not to mention the cost of mailing me a bunch of random shit. Annoyed now, I toss the box on the counter and go into my bedroom to start gathering everything I want to wash.

There’s a tiny part of me that’s still worried.

What if it isn’t Roger? Should I call him and ask him what the hell is wrong with him or would that just open another can of worms?

Taking out my phone, I pull up the security app and watch the feed from while we were gone.

There’s nothing.

Everything is perfectly normal.

Mrs. C came by to knock once but then walked away—I’ll have to call her tomorrow—and there’s normal activity in the hallway during the day. But no one else came to my door, other than our normal mailman.

I can be super hormonal and emotional when I’m having a period. I can manage it at work for the most part, but the rest of the time I can be a mess.

I throw the clothes into the washer and then go back to my room to change the sheets. I spend a lot of time doing that these days. Obviously, Rage and I spend a lot of time in bed, so I have to keep up with it. There’s been a lot less since I got my period, but I need something to do other than overthink everything.

I can’t shake this tiny, nagging feeling in the back of my mind that something is going on. I have no proof. There’s nothing shady on the security footage.

I don’t know why I feel this way.

Walking into the kitchen, I pour myself a glass of wine and then stand there for a while. I sip the wine and try to convince myself that this is just Roger being a jerk. Not someone from the past coming after me.

I wish Rage was here.

But do I want him to see me like this?

Not really.

Instead of spinning out of control, I opt to postpone my shower and sit down at the computer instead. That’s usually my happy place and Rage wanted me to do a background check on this Bronco guy, whose real name is Benjamin Guerin. He’s forty years old, twice divorced, with a fifteen-year-old daughter from his first marriage.

He was arrested once for a domestic dispute, but the charges were dropped.

He’s got not one but two bankruptcies. The first after his first divorce and the second after his second. That makes sense, I guess.

I delve a little deeper, but everything else paints a picture of a guy who’s struggling. He can’t seem to hold down a regular job or stay in a healthy relationship. It seems his only claim to fame was fighting, but now he’s just a guy that doesn’t have much going for him. On paper, I almost feel sorry for him.

Since he’s not that interesting, I decide to be a nosy woman and dig into both Candy’s and Garth’s lives. And there’s quite a bit more to dig into. Both of them have also filed bankruptcy, she’s been arrested multiple times though nothing seems to stick, and she’s been married and divorced. She’s only twenty-four but her past is a bit checkered. She dropped out of high school at seventeen and moved to L.A. to model. Got married at nineteen—to a man twenty-five years her senior—and divorced at twenty-one.

Garth was successful a decade ago but he seemed to have lost everything when his wife got sick. I can’t tell if they had health insurance or not, the common denominator here seems to be financial issues.

Despite a successful modeling career, Candy’s broke. There’s less than five hundred dollars in her checking account and if she has any kind of savings, I can’t find it.

I’m still digging into Garth when I get a text from Allora.

ALLORA: Are you still awake?