Emily had learned to live with insomnia.
Nights stretched too long in the Karanell residence, the glow of the skyline bleeding through the floor-to-ceiling glass until her eyes burned. Brian slept soundly at her side, heavy breaths like the gears of a machine grinding on, while Emily lay awake, tracing cracks in the ceiling that weren’t there.
That was when her phone buzzed.
Blocked number. One new message.
Still think you’re safe?
Her pulse jumped. She didn’t need to wonder who it was. She knew that cadence, the way a knife knows the hand that wielded it.
Sam.
Emily’s thumb hovered above delete, but another message lit the screen before she could act.
“You’ll thank me one day. He’s not who you think he is. Meet me. Ten minutes. The riverbank.”
She clenched her jaw. Her first inst
