Chapter 50. Showtime

Julie

I’m at Ryan's gate.

I lean on the horn, letting the sound echo off the high walls. A place that used to be home. Used to be familiar. Used to be… safe. And now? Just a twisted reminder of everything I’d rather forget.

I’m still sitting there, waiting, when it hits me: the gate doesn’t automatically open. It’s the first time I’ve ever sat here without the smooth, silent glide of that gate making way for me, like it did every other time I’d pull up. Every time… before I left Ryan. Before I left all of this.

Of course, the electric tag needed for the gate to open is glued to my Bentley, the one I left with Ryan on my way out of his life. And the gate’s sensor doesn’t recognize Luke’s car.

I honk again.

A crackle fills the silence, and a muffled voice cuts through. “Hello? Could you… um, could you pull down the window, ma’am? Look into the camera?”

I tug the window down with a deliberate slowness, staring straight into the