Chapter 109

Vera

The first line squeezes my chest.

Not because I’m caught off guard. Honestly, I expected it.

I’m sitting in the backseat as Manhattan slips by outside the window. Roxanne’s handwriting is staring up at me, and I can’t help but linger on it, just for a moment. The paper shakes in my hands. Or maybe it’s me shaking, I genuinely can’t tell.

City lights flicker in the early evening. Traffic inche