Chapter 4

I thought about it for a moment, then added earnestly,

"You should spend more of your money on yourself."

But the message never went through.

A large red exclamation mark appeared beside it.

Evelyn had blocked me.

I put my phone away and decided to find somewhere to stay.

I'd originally considered swallowing my pride, apologizing, and using the two hundred dollars she'd sent me to get a hotel room.

But once she blocked me, I couldn't accept the transfer anymore.

Even that last two hundred dollars was gone.

I'd grown up in an orphanage.

I didn't have many friends to begin with.

When I was little, other kids used to beat me until I was bruised and bloody.

One day, Evelyn, wearing a frilly little dress, had scared them off.

Then she'd pressed a piece of candy into my hand to comfort me.

Maybe my childhood had been so bitter that the first taste of something sweet went straight to my heart.

After that, every memory I had of Evelyn carried that same sweetness.

So when I got into college, the first thing I did was move to the city where she lived.

She was the only person I knew here.

And that apartment was the only place I'd ever been able to think of as home.

I had nowhere else to go.

Building security made me leave the property several times before I finally found a spot nearby where I could spend the night.

The night air was freezing.

I checked my phone and saw that Julian had posted again.

It was a video of him dancing with Evelyn in a warm, brightly lit room.

Evelyn moved gracefully, every step polished and practiced.

She and Julian moved together with effortless familiarity.

At the end, Julian wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off the floor.

Then he glanced directly at the camera.

The smug challenge in his eyes was impossible to miss.

I knew the post was meant for me.

He wanted to make me angry.

The pattern had played out over and over again.

He'd post something only I could see.

I'd lose my temper and confront him.

Then Evelyn would just happen to show up and decide I'd gone there to threaten or bully Julian.

By the time I tried to show her proof, Julian would've already deleted the post.

And that only made me look like a liar.

It was one of the reasons my relationship with Evelyn had fallen apart so quickly over the past month.

But this time, I didn't care.

I just watched Evelyn dance, an ache spreading quietly through my chest.

We'd been married for eight years.

And I'd never known she could dance like that.

Once, I'd come across an old photo of her in ballet clothes and asked about it.

She'd only said, "I used to dance. I don't anymore."

I'd told her she looked beautiful and suggested she take it up again.

She'd suddenly flown into a rage and torn the photo to pieces.

For years, I'd thought my suggestion had somehow upset her.

Only now did I understand.

Maybe she'd stopped dancing because Julian was gone.

Maybe she'd gotten so angry because I'd accidentally touched on a memory that belonged to him.

She must have been happy now.

Happy enough that it apparently never occurred to her to wonder how a terminally ill man still had the energy to dance like that.

I didn't dwell on it.

I only had two days left.

By then, my entire body ached, and every breath had become difficult.

I curled up tightly beneath my blanket, shivering from cold and hunger as I felt my life draining away little by little.

Eventually, exhaustion dragged me into sleep.

I hadn't been asleep long when something hard struck me.

A coin.

"Huh. Marcus?"

Julian's fake-sweet voice drifted down to me.

"Sorry. I thought you were homeless."

I pushed my head out from under the blanket.

Julian was standing in front of me with Evelyn on his arm.

Evelyn looked down at me lying on the ground, then at the suitcase beside me.

Something complicated flickered through her eyes.

"Marcus, how long are you going to keep this up?"

Her voice turned impatient.

"I sent you money. Why are you sleeping out here?"