The city looked different that night.Or maybe it was her.
Jessica stood across the street from the luxury condo, the one whose marble façade gleamed under the sodium lights, cold and perfect, the same way she remembered it. The same place where everything in her life had tilted off its axis.
Her chest tightened. Her feet refused to move for a moment. She told herself to go home, to walk away, to forget this building and the man who waited inside it. But the thought of her family’s unpaid bills, Liza’s medication, and the empty fridge back in the dorm pressed against her harder than fear.
She crossed the street.
Each step felt heavier than the last. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, drowning out the traffic, the hum of the city, the sound of her own hesitation.
By the time she reached
