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Chapter 3

Author: Velvet
Three days until departure

The lock on the townhouse flashed red.

I tried once more, then called the building manager.

He met me at the door with the expression people wore when they knew something about my life before I did.

“Mr. Grant changed the access list yesterday.”

“My belongings are inside.”

“I’ve called him.”

Julian arrived thirty minutes later.

“Why did you come here?”

I looked at the door I had chosen, the brass handle I had ordered, the pots I had planted on the step.

“To collect my things.”

“They’re in the garage. Chloe recognizes this place. It helps her feel settled.”

He unlocked the side entrance.

My books sat in cheap cardboard boxes beside the collection area for discarded furniture. Rainwater had blown under the garage door and soaked the bottom rows.

A photograph lay faceup on top. Mom had given me the frame when I finished graduate school. The crack in its glass cut straight between me and the rest of the family.

Julian saw where I was looking.

“They’re books, Sophie. I can buy more.”

I found my passport in a document wallet that was still dry.

“What happened to the wedding account?”

He stopped moving.

I opened the bank app.

We had saved forty-six thousand dollars. Thirty-two thousand eight hundred of it had come from my salary and bonuses.

Three hundred and seventy remained.

“Chloe wanted a different wedding dress,” he said. “There were rehabilitation expenses. And the honeymoon deposit.”

“You used our wedding money.”

“I’ll put it back.”

I downloaded the statement.

“Sophie, she nearly died.”

He said it with growing irritation, as though I were making him repeat an obvious calculation.

“I know.”

“Then stop treating every little thing like a transaction.”

I put the passport and the dry documents into my bag. I photographed the damage and arranged for a mover to collect what could be saved.

Julian caught my wrist as I stood.

“The wedding plans are only to keep her calm, Sophie. We’ll call it off once she’s stable. Then you and I will get married.”

I gently removed his hand.

“I’m leaving the engagement, Julian.”

He laughed once, without humor.

“You need a few days to calm down.”

I walked past him.

In the taxi, my phone displayed an alert from the pet camera I had installed before we rehomed a foster kitten. Julian had changed the locks but left the camera on my account.

The preview showed Chloe sitting in my pajamas on my sofa.

I opened the saved clip to see why the motion alert had triggered.

Her phone was on speaker.

“I remembered everything by the third day,” she said. “I was scared they’d put everything back the way it was.”

The person on the call said something I couldn’t make out.

Chloe laughed.

“No, they know enough. Nathan heard me talking about her promotion weeks ago. He didn’t ask twice.”

She reached into the cabinet for the coffee I kept behind the mugs.

“They like having a reason to make her agree.”

The recording ended.

I downloaded that clip, turned off notifications, and removed the camera from my account. I had what I needed to understand what had happened. I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life watching their living room.

At the next red light, I called the lawyer who had reviewed my employment offer.

“I need help recovering some money and personal property,” I said.

My voice sounded steadier than I felt.
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