All week, I had wanted to see her.

Every day I came close to giving in… driving across town, storming her house, taking her out of that man’s reach and reminding her she was mine now. But I held back. I wanted her to feel my absence, to ache for me the way I was aching for her. Sometimes distance was a sharper tool than presence. It builds anticipation, it deepens need.

Still, the silence was brutal.

I busied myself with work, with the clubs, the casinos, the clearing at the port… with ...