Chapter 2: Three Words on a Screen
Barrett stood in the doorway, jaw loose, eyes moving slowly across the room.
I had rearranged everything.
New dress.
Hair done properly for the first time in months.
Candles on the table.
A glass of wine poured — for one.
"What is all this?" he said.
"A reminder," I said.
"Sit down."
He didn't sit.
He kept staring at me like he wasn't sure who I was.
"You look…" He stopped himself.
"Say it," I said quietly.
"Go ahead."
He cleared his throat.
"You look different."
"I look exactly the same as I always have," I said.
"You just stopped seeing me."
He pulled out a chair and sat down slowly.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then his phone buzzed on the counter.
He moved toward it fast — too fast.
I got there first.
The name on the screen wasn't one I recognized.
But the message preview was only three words long, and those three words turned everything I thought I knew about that evening — about that entire year — completely upside down.
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What those three words said — and what Barrett did when he realized I'd seen them — is where this story truly begins.
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