Chapter 116

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It was longer than a week before Lud returned home. In that time, I had dusted, vacuumed, and disinfected every surface possible in my spare time. The apartment smelled like Pine-Sol, Clorox, and Windex for a day or two. Perfect.

When Lud came in the front door late on a Friday afternoon as I was preparing to head out to work, he seemed tired. He had an overnight bag slung over his shoulder, and he was dirty from head to toe, the Hugo Boss suit nowhere in sight. He also hadn’t shaved since I saw him last, and his hair was a mess.

“Hey,” he said briefly before opening the door to his bedroom and closing it behind him. He usually hung out a bit when he came back from wherever he’d gone, smiled, poked fun at me, then wandered off to be annoying elsewhere for a time. To not have any of the usual interaction from him was odd. And his facial expression…it had almost resembled despair. I had never seen him like this. Vulnerable, even.