KAEL
Her words hit me like a fucking bullet.
The kind you see coming straight at you but still don't move, because some twisted part of you wants to know how much it'll hurt.
"I want the contract to end."
I didn't flinch. I didn't speak.
But something inside me snapped.
Not loud.
No.
Quiet.
Like fabric tearing in a dark room.
I sat there, frozen in place, while the woman I'd been spiraling over for weeks, the same woman who made me feel like I was finally clawing out of the black hole I'd lived in since birth, looked at me with that numb, distant calm.
Like we were just two strangers who had outgrown a deal.
I tugged at my tie.
The pressure around my neck was unbearable all of a sudden, like her words had sucked the air out of the fucking car. My fingers loosened the knot, and before I could stop myself, I laughed.
A low, bitter sound that barely escaped my throat.
God.
Of course.
I'd been losing her for a while now, hadn't I?
