Chapter 2

I silenced my phone screen without a word and managed a thin smile in Rhett's direction.

"Fine. I'll go."

Where I actually went was my own business.

He let out a slow breath, then leaned in and pressed a brief kiss to my forehead. "I knew you'd understand. Don't worry, I'll bring you back soon."

I wiped the spot with the back of my hand once he looked away.

That night, Rhett stayed by Anna's side without once changing out of his clothes. I sat on the couch all night, chasing sleep that never came, my mind dragging me back through things I'd rather have forgotten.

Rhett had grown up on a scholarship funded by Dad. His grades were exceptional, good enough that Dad had arranged for him to study abroad alongside me.

Back then, he once crossed half the foreign city just to bring me a slice of cake. When I couldn't stomach the food there, he showed up outside the campus gates every evening with a covered lunchbox, waiting.

Now, he couldn't stand the thought of someone like Anna being swallowed up by a place like this.

But Rhett seemed to have forgotten. Seven years ago, he had sworn, at Dad's bedside, that he would always protect me. He promised that the Vale name would never fall as long as he was standing.

The apocalypse hadn't come yet that year. His vows had sounded like they were meant to last forever. Now those same words just felt like a cruel joke.

He used to be such a good man. I couldn't make sense of what had changed.

But I understood one thing clearly enough. Whatever came next, I didn't need him to be part of it.

By the time the ceiling lights had cycled back to their morning setting, Rhett was already in the kitchen, which was rare. He was cooking a pot of chicken noodle soup for Anna.

I walked past without looking at him, went into the bedroom, and pulled my suitcase out from under the bed.

Anna had made it through the night. The small noises stirred her awake, and our eyes met across the room.

Then something seemed to snap in her. She scrambled off the bed and threw herself at my feet, knocking her forehead against the floor over and over.

"Please don't hit me. I'll behave, I promise. I'm good, I'm good, please don't hit me."

I stared at her, caught completely off guard. Footsteps came crashing down the hall.

"Nora! What did you do?"

Rhett burst through the door and scooped Anna into his arms. The look he turned on me was red-eyed and raw.

He never lost his composure. Three years ago, when the world ended, and we lost our daughter, Ophelia Calloway, on the road out of the city, he hadn't even flinched. And yet here he was, undone by a woman he had barely known.

Anna trembled against his chest, tears sliding down her face. "Please, please don't send me back to Level Three. I can sing for you. I'll sing anything you want."

Rhett pulled her closer and spoke to her in a voice I barely recognized, soft and certain. "You're safe. I'm right here."

Then he looked at me, and his tone changed completely. "Anna went through things down there that no one should have to survive. Stop trying to frighten her."

I exhaled slowly. A deep, bone-tired kind of exhaustion settled over me.

"Rhett, I used to think you were the blind one. Turns out it was me all along."

I was blind enough to give him my entire youth.

Something flickered behind his eyes. He opened his mouth, but I was already walking out.

It was strange. When something broke a person badly enough, there was nothing left to fight with.

I went to the study and opened the pocket watch on the shelf. Inside was a photograph of the three of us, back when there had been three of us. The faces smiling up at me stung in a way I wasn't prepared for.

The day we fled underground, Ophelia lost her footing at the edge of a fissure in the earth. There was nothing left to bury. I cried until I had nothing left, and Rhett arrived long after.

The memory pressed down on my chest like a physical weight.

The door opened. Rhett leaned against the frame, watching me turn the pocket watch over in my hands. His expression was hard to read.

"It was an accident," he said. "If she were still here, she wouldn't want to see you like this."

He then set a bowl down on the desk. "Eat something. Your stomach's always been sensitive."

I closed the watch. "You can take Anna's leftovers back."

His jaw tightened. "Nora, I'm only asking you to spend a few months in the slums. That's all. Are you really going to make this into something it isn't? Anna managed three years down there, and she's half your size. What's your excuse?"

I looked at him. "Then why don't you go?"

He didn't catch it at first. When it landed, the color drained from his face.

"Because someone has to keep this household together. If I leave, what's left? And let me be clear. If I hear you've given Anna a hard time, don't expect me to bring you back."

The door slammed behind him. I stood by the bookshelf and laughed quietly to myself. Three years in the apocalypse, and he still hadn't figured out where he actually stood.

"Rhett, did you forget? Without me, you never would have had a place on Level Two to begin with."