Chapter 4

I sank slowly to my knees on the cold marble floor and began picking up the scattered SD cards.

One card had slid under a stranger's suitcase. I bent down to reach for it, but my fingertips hit a shard of broken filter glass first. A sharp sting, then blood welling up instantly, dripping onto the edge of a nearby boarding pass and blooming into a small dark-red stain.

Sophie stumbled back two steps, her face white.

But the first thing out of her mouth was still, "I didn't do it on purpose. Who told you to pull so hard? If you hadn't tried to grab it from me, the bag never would have fallen."

Ethan walked over with a frown and glanced at the broken lens on the floor. He crouched down, his tone as measured and rational as ever. "The lens is broken. I'll buy you a new one. Cards can be replaced, and even if the data's corrupted, we can hire someone to recover it. Get up first. The floor is cold. Don't make yourself sick again."

Those cards held the footage I was preparing to submit to the Highland residency center, all the negatives I needed for a second chance, and the last set of raw files for my graduation exhibition that I hadn't had time to back up.

One card contained a shot I'd waited nine hours in a downpour to capture. Another held the moment a miner's widow agreed to face the camera for the first time. And one more held a rare profile of my mother, taken after my father left, on one of her few good days when she allowed me to photograph her.

But to Ethan, all of that was just a breezy "it's broken, buy a new one."

I picked up the SD cards one by one and curled my fingers around them.

Just then, the airport announcement came on again.

"Passengers traveling to Inverness, your flight is now boarding. Please proceed to the designated gate with a valid boarding pass."

Sophie froze, then whipped her head toward the speaker. "Inverness? You didn't buy a ticket to Bath?"

Ethan's gaze finally dropped to the blood-stained boarding pass next to my hand.

The composure and entitlement on his face shattered in that instant.

"Nora, you're serious?"

He bent down sharply and grabbed my wrist so hard my bones ached. "You're really going to the Scottish Highlands alone? Do you know how cold it is up there right now? Over something like this, you're giving up the study trip the university arranged?"

I looked up. "Something like this?"

I gathered the bloodied SD cards into my palm, my voice quiet but perfectly clear.

"Cancelling the train ticket I spent half a year working to buy, then betting on when I'd notice. That's something like this."

"Destroying the work I spent a month in the mountains shooting, costing me the most important opportunity before graduation. That's something like this."

"Now, smashing my lens and ruining my graduation materials. That's still something like this."

I looked at his face draining of color. "Ethan, how cheap is my life in your eyes?"

Ethan's jaw clenched as he fought to hold back his temper. He tried to soften his voice. "Do you really have to blow a few accidents up to that level? I've already said I'll make it right. I'll buy the lens, put on the exhibition, pay for Bath. What more do you want from me?"

I wrenched my hand free.

A ring of red marks quickly surfaced on my wrist.

Boarding had already started, but Professor Reed had just messaged to say the people at the Highland center didn't mind waiting, and I could catch the next shuttle out. Right now, what mattered more was retrieving my backup hard drive and my emergency medication.

I hadn't been able to find my medication earlier. I must have left it on the nightstand in the rush of packing that morning. The portable hard drive was in the bottom drawer of the study, holding a second backup of most of my original files.

I shoved the broken lens back into the bag, clutched the SD cards in my hand, and turned toward the airport exit.

Ethan thought I'd finally wavered. He immediately caught up. "See, you can't bring yourself to leave after all. Let's go home first. We can talk about everything there. Once you've calmed down, we'll head to Bath together tomorrow morning."

I didn't explain.

Back at the apartment, I went straight to the study, dug the black portable hard drive out of the bottom drawer, and found the backup medication case and EpiPen behind the nightstand.

I had just finished packing everything into my backpack when the apartment door was pushed open.

Ethan strode in and shut the door behind him.

Sophie hadn't followed. She was probably still downstairs. Ethan stripped off his rain-soaked coat, and his voice was terrifyingly cold. "How long are you going to keep this up? Sophie is still downstairs crying. She's so guilt-ridden about breaking your lens she can barely breathe, and you can't even give her a single word of comfort."

I zipped up my backpack and slung it over my shoulder.

"Ethan, you always see her tears first."

"That's because at least she knows she was wrong!" He raised his voice. "And you? From last night you've been acting like we ruined your entire life. You left the key, deleted the shared access, ran to the airport, and now you're planning to run off somewhere that far away, all by yourself. Are you solving a problem, or deliberately punishing us?"

I looked at him in silence.

I finally realized that explaining your pain to someone who will always think you're overreacting is pointless.

"Ethan, we're done."

His expression froze.

I said each word with absolute clarity. "We're breaking up. From now on, whoever you and Sophie want to bet on, whoever's life you want to arrange, it has nothing to do with me."

The room was silent for a few seconds.

Then, as if he had heard something utterly absurd, Ethan let out a low laugh.

"You're ending four years of us over a few pranks?"