RYKER'S POV
The apartment felt empty.
Too empty.
For three long, grueling days...
I carried Lila's two letters everywhere I went.
The first one stayed folded inside my wallet, a permanent weight against my hip, resting right where my heart could feel it.
The second...
I had read it so many times that the creases were turning white, the ink slightly blurred from where my thumb had traced the curves of her handwriting. I had nearly memorized every single word, every loop of her letters, every pause between the lines.
"I'll come back."
Those three words were the only anchor keeping me together in a storm I couldn't see.
Yet...
Every morning, my hand instinctively reached for my phone the exact second my eyes opened. My thumb would hover over her contact name, waiting for a ghost no
