“Just came in here and was assaulted by this hellcat. Don’t think I won’t tell this to your boss, miss.” And then he gave Rinn that wink that he had tried to give Daniella the last time, when he had first walked into the store. “I know you’ll understand, won’t you?”

Daniella waited for it, the moment where the other shoe would drop. The moment where Rinn’s anger would be directed at Daniella.

Daniella had enough experience that she knew, deep in her bones, that she always bore the brunt of other people’s behavior, no matter who started what. No matter who was responsible for what. She was a girl, and it was next to always all her fault.

But Rinn surprised Daniella. She, somehow, was no longer charmed by the wink. Rinn flinched, almost like she had been spat on.

And Daniella was frozen, frozen, frozen.

How ironic that she had written a poem about how the earth would always keep spinning, when Daniella felt as though the entire world and time had stopped all at once. She lived here now. Among these boxes and files and wacky furniture and terrible men.

And then Brock Harvey adjusted his hair, slicking it back with his hand, and walked out of the room. He didn’t seem to have registered that he’d lost Rinn Olivera. He didn’t seem like he’d lost anything at all. It was a saunter, his exit. The walk of a man who believed he owned any place, any space that he moved through.

Like he owned her.

Rinn came closer slowly. She reached out her hand, intentionally not touching or grabbing Daniella. Just reaching out, ready to accept. “Are you okay?”

But okay was so far from it that Daniella could only swat Rinn’s hand away.

Daniella put a hand to her chest, right over the bone there. There was a horrible pain growing there. She tapped on the hard bone in the middle of her chest. Her sternum, right? Was that what it was called? If she could just press on it, maybe she could let out a breath. Maybe she could take in a breath. She kept pressing, tried gripping with her fingertips, but none of it helped. None of it did anything. Daniella still couldn’t breathe.

“Daniella?” Rinn took a step closer. “Danny?”

Daniella didn’t look up. She instead found a rhythm with her body. Forward to her toes, backward to her heels. Forward, toward the knocked-over chairs. Backward, toward the boxes of evidence of all of Eli’s bad decisions. “Get out of here, Rinn.”

“I wanted to check on you.” Rinn’s voice was somehow both quiet and resonant. Not loud, but not a thing that Daniella could ignore.