Racheal let out a shaky, awkward laugh. It was dry, forced. Her lips trembled as the sound escaped, and for a moment, she looked as though she might have misheard him.
Disbelief washed across her face, her features contorting slowly from surprise to devastation.
Christopher, still seemingly oblivious to the weight of what he’d just said, scratched the back of his head casually.
“I don’t really know how these things work,” he said, as if trying to explain something mundane. “I need her help, so I thought… maybe if I got her a few things, it would make her more willing. You girls like that, right?”
The sentence hung in the air like a slap.
Racheal’s mouth parted, and for several seconds, no words came out. Her eyes widened, blinking rapidly as though trying to process each word he’d jus
