The door closed behind him, and with it went the echo of his boots crunching against the gravel. I stood for a moment in the center of the small cottage, my hands still curled around the straps of the thin poly bag I’d packed, as though holding on to them could anchor me.
Silence folded over the house in layers. Heavy. Suffocating. But it was mine now.
Jack hadn’t said much. Just a nod, a short look, and then he was gone—leaving me in this place he insisted would be safer, farther from the woods, from him, from… everything. Relief should have been instantaneous. It was what I wanted—what I told myself I wanted. But instead, stiffness lingered deep in my shoulders, like tension rooted itself in my bones.
I exhaled through my nose and set the bag down on the couch. The cottage smelled of
