CHAPTER 108: Tangible Reminders

  The insistent buzzing of the doorbell ripped me from a restless sleep. My eyelids fluttered open, gritty and heavy. Disoriented, I took a moment to register my surroundings–the familiar blue cushions of the couch, the rain-streaked window overlooking the city, the weight of a crushing truth pressing down on my chest. I'd slept off on the couch in my living room.

  A jolt of memory shot through me. Abel's confession, Alexander's rage and disappearance, the car ride back with Julian, and the choked confession about everything to Julia over the phone. Shame burned in my throat, a bitter aftertaste from the raw honesty of the previous night.

  Why had I expected that my deception would be met with anything less than outrage from Alexander? Even when I was telling Julia everything about what I'd been up to pretending to be Ava Lincoln, I'd braced myself for Julia's inevitable rant, but then all she had said afterward was just one sentence, "I'll be there first thing in the morning."