Chapter 76

• "Do you really think you can just walk away from this, Cole?" Kemi’s voice slithered through the phone line, cool and calculating, as always. "You’re in too deep. You always were."
• I clenched the phone tighter, the plastic almost cracking under the pressure. Her words were like poison, each one sinking deeper into my chest, suffocating what little resolve I had left. She wasn’t wrong. I was in too deep, and it felt like there was no way out.
• I glanced over at the empty space on the couch where Funmi had sat just days ago. The silence between us was suffocating. We hadn’t spoken since she left. She hadn’t called. I hadn’t called. The distance between us had grown like a canyon, and I was the one who had dug the hole.