The darkness that followed one man's pleas and the weight of another man's question had become forever entangled in her mind, taking the night from her. She'd lost the late hours of the night to the ceiling, confused between a past she was forced to leave, and a future to which she wasn't ready to open her eyes to.
Sleep hadn't come. Maddison moved quietly in the dark during the early morning hours in her apartment and she felt like a ghost, the exhaustion a heavy cloak on her shoulders. The cold water she splashed on her face that morning did nothing to erase the image of Tyler's panicked messages or the soft, five-word question that Grant had sent to her email. The unanswered invitation was an electronic bomb in her inbox, a soft, ticking watch demanding action she felt entirely unready
