33_The web tightens

Mike

I didn’t sleep the night Eloise called.

Her voice echoed in my head, raw, broken, full of a pain I’d never wanted to cause. The worst part wasn’t that she suspected me. The worst part was knowing I couldn’t even blame her. From the outside, I was the obvious choice. The only one besides Ava who had seen the children’s designs. The only one who’d been close enough to every sketch, every idea.

And I hated it.

The apartment was silent. I stood by the window, ...