Chapter 152

• At first, I wasn’t sure. He was standing near the edge of the parking lot, leaning slightly against a lamppost as if he needed it for support. But then the tilt of his head, the shape of his stance—it all clicked.
• Jay.
• My breath caught in my throat. I hadn’t seen him in almost two months, not since Timur laid down his unshakable rule: no contact. I tried to move on, to bury my memories of the life we’d lived, the way his presence had always made me feel…lighter. But here he was, looking anything but light.