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EMMA

I t’s the middle of the night.

I can’t help but wonder if he’s at Elysium. Even thinking about him with other girls makes bile rise up my throat.

Klaus never belonged to me, but I never wanted anything more than I wanted him.I wanted us to beat all odds and end up together. Because all of these feelings in my chest have nowhere to go. They’re trapped inside me now, forever a part of me.

I can’t sleep tonight, so I go to his room instead.

I close his bedroom door behind me and lean against it. I stay there, just breathing in thescent of him. It feels like I’m filling my lungs with glass.Every breath I take hurts.

I’m aware this behavior isn’t healthy, but it’s all I want to do.

In a daze,I walk to his bed. It’s the same bed we shared. We spent countless hours under these sheets, but that feels like a lifetime ago now.

It feels like there’s an invisible hand squeezing down on my throat. I don’t know howI could have been so wrong about him. But the irony is that even after all the hurt he caused me, I still can’t bring myself to hate him.

I lay down on the bed and smell his pillow.

I don’t know how it happens, but it gets easier to breathe. His room smells so much like him that it makes my body come alive. I rub my nipples against his bedsheets, feeling restless.

I’m turned on, but I feel empty inside.

Tears run down my cheeks.

I miss being with him. I miss the way he made me feel.

Maybe I was naive to think that a simple girl like me would be enough for a billionaire. But I really thought we had something special.

Before I can fall into the heartbreak spiral, I wipe away my tears and video call Gigi.

She picks up immediately. There’s glitter on her eyelids, and she’s wearing a blonde wig. She’s in the middle of a shift at Elysium.

“Hi, I just wanted to see your face fora second,” I say. “Are you free to talk?”

“Yes, of course,” she says. “I was just about to take a break anyway. Is everything okay, babe?”

My instinct is to brush my emotions under the rug. But I know I don’t have to pretend to be anything I’m not with my friends.

“I miss him, Gigi,” I say. “I misshow happy I was when I was with him. And now, I don’t think I’m ever capable of feeling that happiness again.”

She looks at me for a second.

“Do you want to go on a trip?” she asks.

“A trip?” I repeat.

“Yeah, I think a change of scenery will help,” she says. “We can plan a girl’s trip to Santa Fe. I have a hotel membership, so our stay will be covered.”

“You don’t have to do that for me,” I say.

“It’s not just for you,” she says. “I love working at Elysium, but I’m getting tired of the same old routine.

I want to do something just for fun, you know?

I’ll convince Olivia and Ophelia to come along as well.

I’ll also invite my roommate, Lily. She’s very sweet.

I think you’ll really like her. I’m getting excited about it already. It’s going to be so much fun .”

She grows increasingly animated by the second, and her joy is contagious.

I don’t know if we’ll even end up going on the trip together, but just the thought of it lifts my spirits.

It fills me with something I haven’t felt in a long time—excitement. It’s been a while since I’ve been excited about something.

“You’re smiling,” Gigi says. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

“Yes,” I say. A weekend trip with you all sounds amazing.

“Let’s all meet for brunch tomorrow,” she says. “We haven’t seen you in so long.”

“Won’t you guys be exhausted after the night shift?” I ask.

“Yes, but we still need to eat,” she says.

“Okay, let’s do brunch.”

“Great. I’ll send you the location. We’ll meet there.”

She looks away from the screen for a second. The light shifts on her face. I notice something about her that I didn’t before. There are tear tracks on her cheeks. She didn’t cry while speaking with me, which means she must have been crying earlier.

“Okay, I have to go,” she says. “They’re having a bachelor party here tonight, so it’s busier than usual for a Wednesday.”

“Gigi, wait,” I say. “Is everything okay?”

A shadow passes over her face. There’s a flicker of torment in her eyes that I would have missed if I wasn’t watching closely.

“Everything’s great,” she says. “Why do you ask?”

I know she can’t stay on the phone long, so I let it go—for now.

“Just checking up on you, that’s all,” I say. “I love you. And tell the twins I said hi.”

She gives me a blinding smile.

“I love you, too.”

“Also, you look hot as a blonde,” I say.

“Why, thank you,” she says, touching her wig. “I’m trying something new tonight.”

After we hang up, the weight over my chest no longer feels so heavy. I would have spent the entire night wallowing in self-pity if I hadn't called her. While there’s nothing wrong with that, I’ve done that too many nights in a row. Talking to my friends always helps me get out of my own head.

I stare up at the ceiling.

Things did not turn out the way I’d hoped with Klaus, but I’m glad that I can always count on the girls.

I don’t have to deal with things on my own anymore.

The silence of the night is broken by a pounding on the door. It’s so loud that I nearly jump out of my skin.

Klaus’s laptop pings with a notification, its black screen coming to life on the bedside table. He left in a rush, so he must have forgotten to lock his screen.

I reach for the laptop and click on the notification.

It’s a live camera feed, showing the corridor right outside. My heart stops beating when I see the person standing outside Klaus’s door.

It’s a slender girl with long black hair, dressed in a flowing white wedding gown. A lace veil covers her face, hiding her features from the camera.

I’ve never seen her before in my life, but I feel like I know her from somewhere.

Goosebumps rise on my skin.

I try to zoom in on her face, but I must press the wrong button because the camera feed of the corridor disappears. It’s replaced by a view of my bedroom.

It can’t be.

But the truth is right in front of my eyes. This is live footage of my bedroom. Klaus set up cameras in my bedroom.

That man is a walking red flag. He’s a cold-hearted, ruthless monster. I just saw what I wanted to see in him. But for the first time, I’m starting to see him for who he is.

The pounding on my door intensifies. A chill travels down my spine.

Something is wrong.

Urgency builds inside me, but I’m also paralyzed by fear.

I flip through the camera feeds, my heart breaking a little more when I see he has more cameras in my bedroom. They’re from different angles, including one focused on my bed.

It’s not just about the invasion of privacy; it’s about the principle of it. I really deluded myself into thinking that the man I loved was a good man. I really let myself believe that there was a soft side to him. I fell for every word he said.

I’m so angry right now I could scream.

“ Do it ,” says a voice in my head.

I’m seething as I switch to another camera feed. It’s of the foyer.

I pause on this one. Every thought is wiped out of my head. I’m transfixed as I look at the swinging chandelier. It’s on fire.

I quickly flip through more cameras. The banisters are on fire, too.

The fire is spreading fast, licking everything in its path.

The kids.

I’m terrified, but I need to get the kids out of here.

Without thinking about the girl in the wedding dress, I run to the door and throw it open. The smell of smoke instantly fills my lungs, making me cough. It squeezes down on my lungs, stealing the air from inside me so the fire can burn brighter.

I don’t see anyone in sight. I head straight toward the kid’s room and wake them up.

“Miss Turner?” James asks. “What’s wrong?”

“Guys, I need you to stay calm and come with me,” I say. “There’s a fire. We need to evacuate the house.”

“The house is on fire?” Rosalie asks, looking at me with wide eyes.

“Yes, but we’re going to be okay,” I say. “Come on.”

“Wait, I need to get my things,” Rosalie says, getting out of bed and collecting her favorite toys and books. “I don’t want to lose them.”

She runs to the closet next and starts grabbing her clothes. Jameswatches her with wide eyes.

“Rosalie, we have to go, sweetheart,” I say. “It’s not safe to stay inside any longer.”

“I don’t want to lose my favorite things,” she says, pulling things off the hangers. She gathers her Halloween costume and her favorite ballerina tutu.

“Rosalie, I know it’s frustrating,” I say. “You’re scared you’re going to lose your things.”

“ You don’t understand ,” she screams, her voice shrill. “You don’t understand anything.”

I kneel in front of herand grab her shoulders.

“I do understand,” I say. “You lost your parents. You lost your childhood. You lost way more than you should have. And you’re scared that your life is going to change again. I know it’s scary, and I know it hurts, but we need to let go of things sometimes. That’s just the way it is.”

Her chin wobbles, and she wipes away her tears with furious motions of her little hand.

“I need you to be brave,” I say. “Okay?”

She nods. “Okay.”

I glance at James, who’s still standing in front of his bed. He’s staring at the door with wide eyes.

I follow his gaze. My heart drops.

The girl in the white dress stands at the threshold, watching us.

I see her in the flesh for the first time.

The veil still hides her face, but I can see her more clearly now.

There are scars all over her body. The skin over her face is uneven, as if she had received multiple skin grafts.

And she’s staring right at me with those hollow eyes.

“Miss Turner?” James says softly.

I turn to look at him.

“Can we go now?” he asks.

I glance back at the door to see that the woman is gone. It’s like she was never even there. I would think I imagined the whole thing, but James wears that haunted expression, too.

A loud crash echoes downstairs, making me refocus on getting the kids to safety. This is all that matters right now.