Page 170 of The Clinch
Don’t be stupid
A harsh laughcatches in my throat and dies there.
I type back.
LEO
Copy
The third messagecomes almost at once.
NATE
You good?
I look at it.
Don’t answer.
Nothing useful in that answer.
I lock the screen and set it face down on the stone.
The ring is still there beside it.
Small. Bright. Final.
I pick it up again because leaving it there feels worse.
I stand in the kitchen, the ring in one fist and my other hand braced on the island, breathing slow enough to stop the room from tilting.
Then the last few weeks come back ugly and fast.
The car every morning. Not because she asked. Because I decided.
Eden’s convenient dinners. Nate showing up. Lukas offering a ride.
All of it neat. Efficient.
I built a cage and called it care.
She said I was managing her. I hated hearing it. I hate more that she was right.
I never meant ownership. I meant protection. Ease. Fewer sharp edges. Inside her body, it landed as control. Same shape. Different hands.
Christ.
The air in the apartment is still, the low hum of the air conditioner the only sound. A machine calibrated to run smoothly around me. It never occurred to me she might find that suffocating. To me, order is the thing that lets me breathe.
I pick up my phone.
First the car service. Cancel tomorrow’s booking.
Then Nate.
LEO
Give her space
