The Birthday Betrayal

k to bed hours late

me, pulling m

coldness of my skin,

hin seconds, his warm

, turning my

lit up intermittentl

, old college friends, even

hing fr

n't s

quinted at the dark c

gh n

ched him, meticulously dres

the hero for

yself. One last,

irthday to

a piece of toast

oney's there. Buy

streaming through the kitchen windo

mall, humorless smil

o fidget, a flicker of guilt, th

ined patience. "S

oice laced with that familiar, unbe

re family, lost in that senseless cam

hood bond – I'd learned that les

so blinded by the Et

t let Chloe have

ur wedding, du

ss, stood at the edge of the gues

of fragi

ice carrying through the sudden s

ace recoiled as if the

s, quickly intervened, gently

me with a forced smile, his eyes trying to

came, was brief. A peck. So ru

d the true force of a child

an spent hours on the

rying to hi

nse from the other end was

s full of helplessness and an a

cent, emotionally stuc

g her story, I f

n take me along. I even bought her li

sensed he

exted, asking me to check on Chloe. Said she

ork, but I went. I

her face fell, disappointm

ttered with takeout contai

a nearly transparent, cre

everything in

sick. She