CHAPTER 406

Valerie stared at her phone screen, her wrist still aching from where she’d slammed it into the dresser. Her breathing was ragged, uneven, disbelief twisting her face.

He didn’t come.

He always came.

She sat on the cold floor of her apartment, surrounded by the silence that pressed in from all sides. Her wide eyes darted around the empty room, her mind racing. The fake pain had been real enough th