The night felt heavier than usual. It pressed against Iris’s skin like warm hands, wrapping around her as she stood in the empty lobby, staring at the elevator doors. She didn’t even remember leaving the house. All she remembered was the message he had sent earlier that day. Just two words.
Come ready.
She didn’t ask what it meant. She didn’t need to. Her body already knew. Her pulse was pounding beneath her skin before she stepped through the tower’s glass doors. She hated how her hands trembled not just from fear but from something deeper. Something she’d stopped pretending wasn’t there.
The elevator doors opened without her touching the button. The inside smelled faintly like him. Clean, dark, expensive. She stood against the back wall, breathing unevenly as the floors slid past. She
