Chapter 2

It was already late when Alexis Goldstein got back to our rental. She was still wearing the delivery uniform she'd left in that morning, rainwater dripping from her hair onto the floor.

Before, I would have grabbed her a towel right away. But now I sat curled up on the couch, my legs numb.

"I did dozens of runs today. Next month's paycheck should look a little better," she said. "I brought you some of your favorites. I happened to pass a banquet on the way back, so I took some home.

"And there's a tin of cookies too. The company handed them out."

Alexis chattered on as she set her bags down on the table. She glanced at the cookie tin I'd left there and paused. "Your company handed out cookies too? What a coincidence. It's the same one."

The leftovers in her bag had already gone cold. She'd probably eaten at Jeff Hocken's place.

I clenched my fingers until the skin went white. So all this time, everything I ate and everything I used had been Jeff's leftovers.

I took a deep breath, struggling to keep my voice steady as I brought up my mother, Denise Hawkinson. "Mom's medical bills still haven't been paid this month. Don't you have some money left over? Could you..."

Before I could finish, Alexis started handling her things more roughly, cutting me off. "I haven't been paid yet. And once I am, I still have debts to pay off."

Her voice was cold and hard.

It had always been like this. She could be so, so good to me, but the moment money came up, she turned into a different person.

I'd always believed it was just because her debt was crushing her.

But that wasn't it.

The bathroom door shut.

Water dripped steadily in the living room. The wooden basin in the corner was already full of rainwater.

The home she shared with Jeff wouldn't leak. Its walls wouldn't grow mold.

No wonder she never liked coming home.

Since money had come up, Alexis seemed sulky. When we went to bed, she lay with her back to me. "When are we getting new sheets? These are way too itchy."

I paused and looked up. "A set of sheets costs over fifteen dollars. Didn't you say we needed to save?"

Alexis's back stiffened. She sulkily pulled the covers over her head.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I looked up the address of the mansion. That led me straight to Jeff's social media account.

He'd posted hundreds of vlogs, most of them documenting his everyday life with Alexis, from little things like the pets they kept to moments charged with intimacy. The comment sections were full of people envying their love.

In one clip, he'd filmed Alexis cooking in the kitchen. Head bowed, she carefully picked the bones out of a fish.

My eyes stung as I watched.

Alexis didn't know how to cook. Or maybe she'd simply never cooked for me.

Most of the time, I was so busy taking jobs that I forgot to eat. When I got home, an empty fridge was waiting for me. Alexis would always bring out a few packs of instant noodles. "Just pour some hot water on them and they're good to go."

She never prepared surprises for me on every holiday the way she did for Jeff in those videos either. All she ever said to me was, "We're under too much pressure. Anniversaries and birthdays are for rich people."

The happiest she'd ever made me was when she bought a matching pair of gold-plated silver rings. She said, "Someday, we'll definitely upgrade to better wedding rings."

She'd promised me so many somedays. Not a single one had ever come true.

Maybe the screen was too bright, because Alexis poked her head out. "What's wrong? What are you looking at?"

I covered the screen. "Nothing."

She went quiet beside me. I opened a ticket app and booked myself the cheapest standing-room train ticket I could find. It left in a week.

This was the end of the line for Alexis and me.