The weight of the past didn’t disappear overnight.
Lisa was dead.
But her presence still lingered in my mind like a shadow, clinging to the edges of my thoughts, whispering in the quiet moments when I thought I could finally breathe.
It wasn’t just about her.
It was about everything she had taken from me.
The choices she had forced me to make. The scars—both visible and invisible—she had left behind.
And now, for the first time in years, I had to figure out what came next.
Freedom was supposed to feel lighter than this.
---
The apartment was dark when we got back.
Noah unlocked the door, stepping inside first. His movements were careful, protective, like he still expected someone to be waiting in the shadows.
I didn’t blame him.
I felt it too.
The paranoia. The feeling that th
