Chapter 64

• For the first time in a long time, her words affected me in a way I wasn’t prepared for.
• RUBEN
• The door creaked open, and my breath hitched. Everything I had planned—every reminder I had drilled into my head to keep my distance, to not get involved—vanished in an instant. My fingers went numb, and whatever I held slipped from my grasp, crashing onto the floor. She stood in front of the mirror, her back to me, struggling to zip up her dress. Her long hair was pushed to the side, exposing the smooth skin of her spine. Her fingers trembled as they reached for the zipper, barely brushing it. My breath stilled. She was everywhere, in the air, in the dim light, in the way the room seemed to hum with her presence.