Chapter 4

I stared at the screen, paralyzed.

I clicked into my chat with Tyler. His last message was from this afternoon:

[Babe, boarding now. ETA is 8:00 PM. Make sure you eat a good dinner, okay?]

Attached was a photo looking out of an airplane window.

I checked the time. It was 7:30 PM.

I typed and erased several messages before finally sending:

[Text me when you land.]

Right after hitting send, I flagged down a cab and raced back to our old studio apartment.

The whole ride, I desperately tried to convince myself: Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Julian mistook someone else for Tyler. That photo was blurry. It could be anyone.

Every excuse, every rationalization I fabricated to save Tyler completely shattered the second I arrived at the apartment door.

Sitting on the welcome mat was the exact pair of shoes Tyler had worn when he left this morning.

I was the one who had picked them out for him.

The door next to it clicked open. Julian peeked out, raised an eyebrow, and murmured:

"Come in. You can hear it clearer from in here."