It was almost refreshing to breathe without Veronica’s scent suffocating him, clogging the air like chains he couldn’t shake off. At last, he was free of her imprisonment. He carried with him the fake passports and documents she’d made, meant for their travels around the world, but now twisted into tools of his escape.

Sadness and guilt wrestled with him in the quiet spaces of his mind. He remembered the way he’d slipped out, remembered the weight of betrayal he'd felt when she'd slowly fallen into unconsciousness, and even the small cruelty of stealing her phone, as she’d denied him one for fear he might reach for the outside world....