The Fire He Chose
No footsteps pacing in the hallway at 2am while he was on the phone with someone he said was just a colleague.
Then the night before returned in pieces, not all at once, but in sharp, painful flashes that made her sit up too fast, her breath catching in her chest like she had been running. The rain hammering the pavement outside the club, cold and relentless, soaking her shoes and her feet until she could not feel her toes. The thin strap of her silver dress snapping under Daniel's hand when he pulled her, the sound it made, like a small, final break. The laughter of strangers who pulled out their phones instead of helping, who watched her stumble. The cold seeping through her skin until she