Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 1 - Chapitre 5

Rachel's POVCold water rushed over my head, numbing my skin and silencing the ringing in my ears. The hotel’s staff shower was small and unremarkable, white tiles, humming fluorescent light, but it felt like the only place I could hide. I scrubbed at my arms until the faint scent of frosting was gone, yet the humiliation clung to me like a stain that would not wash out.When the water finally ran clear, I stood there for a moment, hands braced on the wall, my breath trembling.Today was terrible. No, beyond terrible.I towelled off quickly, slipped into the spare staff clothes one of my old colleagues had pressed into my hands, and stuffed my ruined dress into a plastic bag. My reflection in the fogged mirror was a stranger. My hair still damp, my eyes swollen from tears, and

Rachel’s POVI sat in the car for a long moment after closing the door, hands gripping the steering wheel, the echo of his words still burning in my chest.Our five-year agreement will expire.A contract. That was all I’d ever been to him.I forced myself to inhale deeply, then again, until the air no longer caught painfully in my throat. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, but I blinked them away. I had cried enough for one day.When I caught my reflection in the rear-view mirror, my eyes were red-rimmed, lashes clumped together. My cheeks were blotchy, my hair a tangled mess. I barely looked like myself.“Pull it together,” I whispered. “Amber’s waiting.”I started the engine and adjusted the mirror. As I turned my head, something outside the passenger window caught my eye.A man stood by the curb, hunched beneath the flickering streetlight. His clothes were tattered, his shoulders bent, a scruffy beard shadowing most of his face. A small bag hung from his wrist, and when he tu