Chapter 71 No More Secrets

• Clara
• I exhaled a plume of smoke into the night air, leaning against the balcony railing as my gaze drifted upward to the dark canvas of the sky. The phone remained clutched in my other hand as I flicked the ash from my cigarette into the waiting ashtray.
• Stress was never a good thing for me— a relentless adversary that always seemed to have the upper hand. I neither had the option to retreat nor the freedom to move forward.