Chapter 5

By the time I got the suitcase through the door of the furnished apartment, my knee was shaking.

The place was on the sixth floor of a building twenty minutes from the hospital. One bedroom. A narrow kitchen. Furniture chosen by someone who had never planned to stay.

Perfect.

Nothing in it belonged to Ethan.

I locked the door behind me and leaned against it until the pain in my ribs settled.

Then I unpacked my medication.

The discharge folder listed everything I was supposed to do: pain medicine, ice, limited weight on my left leg, follow-up with orthopedics, watch…