Chapter 40: The Smell of Bleach

Beth waits for Sean at the elevator, because the thought of going up by herself makes her queasy.

“It’s not as bad as it seems,” she tells him once they’re in the elevator, because what she wants to say is I’m sorry and it’s awful and please, Alpha, make it better. “Thank you for coming over though.”

“Of course,” he says, his expression guarded. Beth swallows and ignores the panicked race of her heart in her ears, the nausea swelling in her belly with each step they take toward her place. She unlocks her apartment door, not expecting the lingering scent of Chris, of her distress, of the bleach Helen had used, to be as bad as it was when she’d left that morning.

It’s worse, somehow. Or maybe she’s just so used to Sean’s scent that anything else is jarring and awful by comparison. There’s a sourness to it, when it hits her. She freezes, one step into the apartment, assaulted by the sharp odor of bleach and the poorly covered scent Chris left behind.