(Kathie’s Point of View)
The elevator ride down from the 50th floor of Sterling Tower is a silent, suffocating descent. I stand beside Ashley, watching the numbers on the digital display drop, each one feeling like a step down into a deeper level of hell. Ashley is a statue carved from ice. She hasn't said a word since Nicole dropped her little bomb, the one that detonated with a dazzling smile and shattered our timeline into a million tiny pieces. Next week. The words echo in the small, enclosed space. It’s not a wedding announcement; it’s the c*****g of a gun.
I watch her out of the corner of my eye. Her face is pale, a stark canvas of shock, but there’s a new hardness in her jaw, a glint in her deep brown eyes that wasn’t there a month ago. The wounded girl I’ve spent the last thre
