There was a knock on the front door. She almost screamed in frustration.

On the other side of the peephole was Aaron. Duke’s agent. Seriously, are you kidding me right now?

“What do you want?” she yelled, without opening the door.

“You’re not going to open up? Classy, Angel.” His voice was muffled.

She ripped open the door. “Oh, I’m the one who needs to worry about being classy? Give me a break. Bribing a doctor—”

“Shh! Jesus!” Aaron stepped closer to her.

She held her ground. “Nah, you’re not coming in. What do you want?”

“Willis said you left this behind.” He reached into the pocket of his hipster jeans and then dangled a gold bracelet from his squat fingers. Gabriela’s bracelet. Angel must have left it on Duke’s kitchen table, a second time. Her friend’s family heirloom.

“Thanks.”

“So. What else did you leave there?” Aaron checked his cuff links. “You got something else you think you need to go get?”

“Huh?” Her confusion was over in a flash. “You think I planted that bracelet?”

“Oh. No. Not you. You not lookin’ for a sugar daddy, right, Angel?”

Angel forced a laugh. “I mean … Wow. What, you afraid I might steal your sugar?” Before he could answer, she continued, “Dude, I am not interested in your man. We’ve parted ways.”

“Wait.” The agent furrowed his brow. “He’s not here?”

Chapter Eighteen

Angel dreamed of falling. She’d been on the edge of a roof—the clinic’s roof, but in the dream it commanded a view of her college campus. Dr. Collins stood to one side of her, Duke on the other. They were shouting at each other, so she’d jumped. She fell, and fell, and fell. The fall was infinite. She had no control and no idea of how or when it was going to end. Afraid and frustrated, she screamed.

She woke, the scream pressing against her closed lips—a long, muffled moan in real life. She kicked the blankets off and the air cooled her sweaty skin. She cringed away from the bright red lights on the alarm clock. Angel squeezed her eyes shut again, but it was no better, her mind free-falling back into a dream state, the same dream on reset.

Groggy, she forced herself from the bed. It was an hour before her alarm was set to go off. Just one more thing the idiot men in her life had stolen from her. Dignity, peace, and now sleep.