CHAPTER ELEVEN : The Journal13Please respect copyright.PENANA2KdVlytOng
(Her POV)
She didn’t mean to find it.
She was just looking for a hoodie in his drawer.13Please respect copyright.PENANAqnYaRoQznb
Something soft, something that smelled like him.13Please respect copyright.PENANARdEgS58WPZ
But under the folded fabric was leather—13Please respect copyright.PENANAC6FahHbypG
old, cracked, and familiar in the way secrets always are.
A journal.
Her name was carved into the spine.13Please respect copyright.PENANAfwpM1OeWTH
Not in full.13Please respect copyright.PENANAIVxwJFAj43
Just an initial.
But it was enough.
She knew she shouldn’t open it.
She was raised better than that.
But love has a way of making you braver than you should be.13Please respect copyright.PENANAYR95frj2An
And fear?13Please respect copyright.PENANAw02Bq1PQv7
Fear makes you reckless.
The first few pages were clinical.
Dates.13Please respect copyright.PENANAlFMG5EAHYJ
Appointments.13Please respect copyright.PENANAwUboNkL8HS
Clients.
Names she didn’t recognize.13Please respect copyright.PENANA4n7fbGrCIj
Stories she wished she could forget as she read them.
Women who came broken.13Please respect copyright.PENANAJUqGIh0Lhw
And left… not always whole.
Some pages were crossed out.13Please respect copyright.PENANAAo3TYjm4zD
Some had stains.13Please respect copyright.PENANAhVTfFzJ2Aa
Wine?13Please respect copyright.PENANAFwTySzTiCo
Tears?
She wasn’t sure.
Then she saw it.
A page without a name.13Please respect copyright.PENANA2CqKQFYPae
Only a title:
“Her.”
She sat down.
Hands trembling.
And read—
“She didn’t come in for pleasure.13Please respect copyright.PENANAhaum2RxJax
She came in trying not to fall apart.”
“Her laugh made me forget I had rules.”
“I didn’t mean to touch her like that.”
“I didn’t mean to need her like this.”
“If she ever finds this journal,13Please respect copyright.PENANAO99a49ZObV
I will lose her.”
“But if she never does…13Please respect copyright.PENANACrj2LUn8yv
I might lose myself.”
She stopped reading.
The words blurred.13Please respect copyright.PENANA4rMNs8GvVC
Hot tears dripped down the edge of the leather.
She closed the book and held it against her chest—13Please respect copyright.PENANAOXSFDD2kgx
like maybe it could tell her what to do.
The door opened.
She didn’t need to turn around to know it was him.
His voice was barely a breath.
“You found it.”
She nodded.
He didn’t ask what page.
He already knew.
“How much of it was real?” she whispered.
He walked to her slowly.13Please respect copyright.PENANATLg6jF5lLN
Sat beside her.13Please respect copyright.PENANAplKD0TXdUG
Didn’t touch her.13Please respect copyright.PENANADWRAtyhwYO
Didn’t lie.
“Everything,” he said.
She looked up at him. Eyes burning.
“Even the part where you said you might lose me?”
His answer shattered the silence:
ns216.73.216.203da2“That’s the part I pray was wrong.”