Chapter 2

I sat in a park near the station until morning.

By the time I stopped crying, my eyes were swollen and I had no tears left. Then I went home.

I reached our apartment and stopped. The door looked wrong.

The old lock had been replaced with an electronic one.

I stared for a couple of seconds, then raised my hand to knock.

The building manager stepped out of the elevator.

He looked surprised to see me. "Marwen, Peregrine ended the lease yesterday afternoon. Didn't he tell you?"

He hadn't. While I'd been at the police station, Peregrine had hired movers and emptied the apartment we'd shared for two years.

I was his girlfriend, and I hadn't known a thing.

It was like the time he'd gone on a business trip without telling me. I'd waited for him to come home, then gone to his office to find out where he was.

The manager looked at my swollen eyes and lowered his voice.

"There are two boxes in the storage room downstairs. See if anything in them belongs to you. I can hold them for a while if you need me to."

"Okay. Thank you."

I went to the storage room. One box held the gifts I'd given Peregrine over the years.

The other held my clothes and personal things.

They looked like trash someone had set aside.

Linnea texted me.

"Marwen, Peregrine moved into the new condo last night. I didn't want to decide what to do with your things, so I put them in boxes."

She sent me the address.

"You'll need a key fob to get into the building. Peregrine won't be back tonight, so let me know if you want to come over. I can come down and let you in."

When Peregrine and I set a wedding date, his mother had suggested buying a condo of our own instead of continuing to rent.

"Home is wherever we are," Peregrine had said. "It doesn't matter where we live."

He didn't want the hassle of moving. "Ask the landlord if he'd sell us this place. Then we can stay put."

I'd thought he wanted to turn the apartment we'd shared for two years into a home that belonged to both of us.

When I learned the landlord might sell, I'd been thrilled. I replaced the furniture piece by piece and spent each day making the place ours.

And then Peregrine moved out without a word.

I hadn't even known there was a new condo. Another woman had known all along.

She even had a key fob.

I put my phone away and told the manager, "I don't want any of it. Please dispose of the boxes according to the building's policy."

I left and called a cab to take me to my parents' house.

I'd barely gotten in when Linnea texted again.

"Marwen, are you upset with me? Is that why you aren't answering?"

"I shouldn't have said I was scared to live alone in this building. Peregrine bought the condo next to mine and moved in so quickly because of me. Blame me if you're angry, not him."

Her message took me back to our first year together. I'd rented an apartment in Peregrine's neighborhood just to be closer to him.

I lived there alone.

One night, a thunderstorm frightened me. I called him in tears and asked him to come over.

He'd said only, "Marwen, can't you call your parents?"

Back then, I didn't understand why he was always so distant with me.

I did now.

I wasn't the woman he loved.

Nothing I did would ever matter to him.