Page 3 of Bound By Crimson
She didn’t know.
And now, she would never have the chance to ask.
The silence pressed in again, heavier than before. Her throat burned. She felt like she was floating outside of her own body—like the room was real, but she wasn’t.
She wanted to scream. To cry. To run. To tell someone—anyone.
But there was no one left.
No mother to explain. No father to comfort.
No best friend to call and say, “You won’t believe what I just found.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, but it didn’t help. Nothing felt solid anymore.
Her whole life had cracked open... and she had no one to help her hold the pieces.
But she still had to go to work.
She still had to keep moving.
Because what else could she do?
Gently she refolded the blanket, tucked the note back inside the box, and closed it with a trembling hand before sliding it back into the closet.
Not because she was ready.
Because she had no choice.
Wiping her palms against her jeans, she stood.
She glanced around the room, her eyes landing on her father’s cardigan draped over the chair—what she’d been searching for before everything else had unraveled.
She crossed the room toward it, but as she passed the dresser, something caught her eye.
A white envelope.
Sitting quietly beside the mirror, like it had been waiting for her.
A faint layer of dust clung to the edges.
The paper was thick. The printing formal.
Just the clean, black lettering of a law office:
Edison Ashford, Attorney at Law
Her stomach dropped.
She knew exactly what it was.
For a moment, she considered leaving it—letting it collect dust like everything else they’d left behind.
But something stubborn moved her forward. She crossed the room and picked it up with numb fingers.
The letter that had started it all.
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