Jack saved her contact as Ice Lady at exactly 7:29 a.m. like it was an act of rebellion.
He didn’t do it because he hated her.
He did it because names mattered, and if he called her Evalyne in his phone, it would start to feel real in a way that scared him. Ice Lady was safer. A joke. A thin layer of insulation between his thumb and the life he’d been dropped into.
He was still staring at the screen, wondering if he should add an emoji, when the phone started ringing in his hand.
ICE LADY
Incoming call.
Jack stared at it like it was a dare.
He answered on the third ring, voice deliberately sleepy. “Hello?”
“Get up,” Evalyne said immediately.
Jack blinked. He sat up too fast, sheets tangling around his legs. “Good morning to you too.”
“It is not good,” Evalyne said. “It is seven-t
