Chapter 3

I stood in front of that familiar door.

I drew in a deep breath and pressed my thumb to the fingerprint lock.

The lock beeped its mechanical rejection.

I froze, then switched to the keypad.

My birthday, Victor's birthday, the day we became a couple……

Each wrong-password tone drove me deeper into a block of ice.

Until the alarm went off, and a neighbor leaned out, staring at me like something was wrong.

The humiliation came in cold, cutting waves.

I closed my eyes for a moment, then slowly keyed in Crystal's birthday.

The door opened.

I clenched my teeth and pushed it wide.

Then stopped dead the instant I took in the room.

This had once been my wedding home with Victor.

From the color of the floors to the style of the curtains to every piece of furniture in the living room.

All of it chosen bit by bit around what I liked.

But now.

On the shoe cabinet sat a photo of the two of them.

On the dining table, a matching pair of cups, one blue, one pink.

On the balcony hung Crystal's lace nightgown.

The home that had once belonged only to us.

Everywhere I looked, it was buried in the traces of the life they shared.

My gaze traveled to the end of the hallway.

That room Victor had locked with his own hands.

I still remembered the day we did the renovation.

He'd wrapped his arms around me from behind, his voice full of longing.

"When the baby's born, this will be his room."

"We'll paint the walls that creamy yellow you love, all right?"

Back then, I believed we really would have a family.

But later.

The day I learned Crystal had been in the accident, I was so frightened I fell to the ground, and I lost the baby I hadn't even carried to term.

For a while after, I nearly fell apart.

Victor held me as I cried myself hoarse, his eyes red as he promised:

"I'll keep this room just as it is, until the baby comes back. No one touches anything in here."

But now, that door stood half open.