Abby shut the bedroom door with more force than she meant to. The click of the latch echoed too loudly in the quiet apartment. She stood there for a second, hand still on the knob, chest heaving like she’d just run up a flight of stairs. The room felt too small. The air felt wrong, thick and unmoving.
She crossed to the futon and sat, then immediately stood again.
No.
Sitting meant thinking.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She flinched and pulled it out, staring at Norah’s name glowing on the screen. She couldn’t open the message. Couldn’t tell her best friend what was happening. Norah would drop everything, would come running, and Abby couldn’t drag anyone else into this mess.
Lucas and Celia had already done too much.
Her thoughts started looping, fast and merciless. Things she sho
