Chapter 2

The people who'd come to view the place traded a glance, muttered something to each other, and walked out the door.

Patrick's face turned dark the instant they left.

"What are you shouting about? It's my house. What's wrong with bringing people to look at it?"

I had no interest in his excuses. My eyes were tearing across the room, searching.

"Where's my cat?"

Corey Abbott, the cat I'd raised for three years, always came trotting over the moment I opened the door.

But now I checked under the bed, the closet, the balcony, and there wasn't so much as a shadow of him.

My heart lurched up into my throat.

"Patrick, I'm asking you. Where is my cat!"

He couldn't have cared less. His tone was pure contempt.

"Oh, that animal?"

"It was darting around underfoot while I was showing people the place. Getting in the way."

"So I kicked it out the door."

"What did you say!" My eyes went wide in disbelief.

I couldn't even stay to fight with him. I spun around and tore down the stairs like a madwoman.

"Corey! Corey, where are you!"

I searched the area, circle after circle.

Just as I was about to give up, I finally heard a faint, thin meow from a patch of weeds.

Corey was curled into a ball, shaking all over, his once snow-white fur caked with mud and grime.

There was an obvious scrape along one of his hind legs.

I gathered him into my arms as gently as I could, and the tears came at once.

I carried him back up the stairs.

Patrick was sitting on my couch, one leg crossed over the other, smoking, flicking his ash straight onto my rug.

I walked up to him.

"What gave you the right to kick him?"

His hand paused around the cigarette. He cut me a sideways look.

"What? A person needs to pick a good day before kicking an animal?"

"It bared its teeth at me like it was about to bite. I haven't even billed you for emotional distress yet!"

I was shaking with rage.

Corey hid under the bed if a stranger so much as came near. How could he ever have tried to bite anyone?

"You're lying! You hurt him on purpose!"

Crack.

A hard, ringing slap landed on the left side of my face.

The blow knocked my head to the side, and my ear filled with a high ringing.

In my arms, Corey cried out in fright and shrank deeper against me.

Patrick stood up and jabbed a finger at me.

"Who do you think you are, talking to me like that?"

"You kept a cat in my house behind my back, and I haven't even settled that account with you yet!"

I pressed a hand to my burning cheek and forced the words out through my teeth.

"When we signed the lease, I specifically asked you whether I could keep pets, and you agreed. With your own mouth!"

Patrick let out a cold laugh, every inch the swindler.

"Did I? Is it written in the contract?"

"Cut the nonsense. You kept a pet without my permission. That's a breach of contract."

"Not only does that six thousand deposit stay with me, you owe me another six thousand in penalty fees on top of it!"

His shamelessness was almost enough to make me laugh.

There was no clause anywhere in that contract barring pets.

This was daylight robbery.

He gave a snort through his nose, pulled out his phone, and tapped a few times.

A file came through on my messages.

I opened it. A spreadsheet, titled "List of Non-Removable Items."

I skimmed it, and the fury shot straight to the top of my skull.

The list didn't just include the air conditioner and water heater I'd installed at my own expense.

Even the small appliances I'd meant to take with me, the microwave, the air fryer, the humidifier,

were laid out on it, one by one, plain as day.

Patrick's eyes were all calculation.

"You said it yourself, out loud, that all of this was staying for me."

"I recorded it, too."

"When you move out, if I go down this list and find even one thing missing,"

"I'll call the police and have you arrested. I'll charge you with theft!"

I looked at that list, three years of my heart and money on it, and it struck me as utterly absurd.

I'd thought my goodwill would buy me a peaceful move-out.

Instead I'd fed and raised an ungrateful, bottomless leech.

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, and something in my eyes went cold for good.