Chapter 41

• Renee was still lying on the bed, wrapped in the comforting silence left by Camila’s departure. The deep, heavy weeping had subsided, leaving her throat raw and her eyes aching. She felt hollowed out, as if her entire central nervous system had been scraped clean. All that remained was a cold, hard shell of fury protecting the soft, vulnerable core of her grief.
• A sudden, sharp knock echoed through the flat, jarring her out of the near-sleep exhaustion.
• Renee froze. No one ever knocked like that—it wasn’t Camila’s friendly rhythm, nor was it the tentative tap of a delivery person. It was firm, and entirely unwelcome.