2026-11-01 14:33:27
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 15
The café on Marlowe Street smelled of burned sugar and old books.Jayden arrived forty minutes early.He left his phone on the kitchen counter, where the spyware could keep recording nothing but the hum of the refrigerator. He took the long way, switching buses twice, doubling back through a shopping arcade, and ducking out through the delivery entrance of a hardware store.He had spent six years tracking shipments. He knew how to lose a tail.At noon exactly, he took a table in the corner with his back to the wall and ordered black coffee.Nobody came.At twelve-fifteen, a boy in a delivery jacket set a paper bag in front of him."For you, sir. Prepaid.""I didn't order this.""The man told me it's from a friend." The boy shrugged and left.Inside the bag, Jayden found a plain white envelope. Inside the envelope, a single sheet of paper, with no signature.Three business names. Three addresses. Thre
Chapter 14
Jayden spent the night with his back against the closet wall and Trevor Russo's business card in his fist.Your wife was kind enough to let me in.He read the line a dozen times. It was written in smooth, confident handwriting, the sort a man used when he never worried about consequences. It was meant to frighten him.It had worked, a little. His hands were not quite steady when he turned the card over, and he hated that a stranger could do that to him with a few lines of ink.At dawn, he checked every window, every lock, and every drawer. Nothing else had been disturbed. Nothing else had been taken.Which meant the man had only wanted to leave a message.I am here. I am watching. I can walk into your life whenever I like.Jayden struck a match, held the corner of the card to the flame, and dropped it into the sink. It curled into black ash."Fine," he murmured. "Watch."He showered, dressed, and was brewing coffee when the key turned in the front door.Summer came in wearing yesterda
Chapter 13
Jayden stopped walking.A bus rumbled past, spraying warm air across his legs. A little girl on a scooter wobbled by with her mother jogging behind. The ordinary world carried on.He drew a slow breath."Stay where you are," he told Summer. "I'm coming."By the time he reached Ridgeway Motors, the sun had sunk behind the glass towers. His former car sat under the floodlights with a bright orange SOLD sign across the windshield, and Summer stood beside it in a cream coat, arms crossed, heels tapping.She did not speak when he arrived.She simply held out her hand, palm up."The keys.""I don't have them.""You sold it.""Yes.""You sold our car.""I sold my car," Jayden corrected gently. "You have your own."Her face went through three expressions in quick succession. Disbelief. Fury. Something almost like fear."Why?""I needed the money.""For what?""Investments.""What investments?""I'll tell you when I'm ready.""You'll tell me now!" Her voice rose. A salesman across the lot glan
Chapter 12
"What did you do?"Summer stormed down the hallway with her phone held out like a weapon. The screen glowed with a red banner. TRANSACTION DECLINED."I declined it," Jayden answered, calmly ladling rice into a bowl."You declined it? I was standing at the counter, Jay! In front of the saleswoman and two other customers! Do you have any idea how humiliating that was?""You were standing at the counter?" He tilted his head. "I thought you were in the bedroom."Her mouth snapped shut.For half a second, she seemed trapped. Then she recovered, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "I mean, I was about to go. I wanted to see how much it was online first.""Online, in a jewelry store.""Don't be pedantic."He set the bowl in front of her. "Nine thousand four hundred dollars is not a gift, Summer. It's a down payment on a car.""It's a bracelet. Dana's boyfriend bought her one.""Then Dana's boyfriend can afford it.""You can afford it too!""No," he replied quietly. "I can't."She stared at
Chapter 11
Jayden sat cross-legged on the stone floor of the gray room with the black notebook open on his knees.Inside this room, nothing rushed him. No phone buzzed. No wife complained about the thermostat. The only sound was the faint hum of the green light on the far wall.He clicked his pen and wrote a heading at the top of a fresh page.THE LIST.Under it, he drew six columns. Food. Medicine. Tools. Fuel. Equipment. Construction.Then he stared at the empty page, because the hardest part was not what to buy.It was how many people he was buying for.In his first life, he had stockpiled for two mouths. Himself and Summer. Three months of food had felt like a fortress, and it had lasted exactly ninety-one days before she carried it away.This time, he needed to think bigger.He wrote a number. 2.He crossed it out.He wrote 20. Then 100. Then he held the pen above the page for a long time, remembering the line outside the hospital on Maple Street, and the way the line had stopped moving on
Chapter 10
Jayden did not move.Behind the bathroom door, the tap ran again. Summer's voice dropped lower, too soft to catch. He stood in the living room with his hand wrapped around the pendant in his pocket, and for the first time since he had woken up in this life, he wanted to kick down a door.He did not.Instead, he walked quietly out of the apartment, closed the front door without a sound, and drove to a stationery shop across town.Rule one, he reminded himself. Trust no one.He bought a thick black notebook with a hardcover and a ribbon marker, the kind a man buys when he plans to keep records for a long time. Then he sat in a quiet café with a mug of coffee and a pen.The first page stayed blank for ten minutes.He had thought it would be easy. He had lived through it, after all. But memory was a strange animal, and when he tried to grab it, it ran.He closed his eyes and let himself remember the night the sky turned red.It had begun as a smear of pink above the rooftops, thin as a br
You may also like
The Son-in-Law Apocalypse Revenge
Sunnies2.1K viewsApocalypse Harem System: Frozen Kingdom
Bankia204 viewsApocalypse Survivor
Scarlet Dawn929 viewsCheat In Apocalypse
Ace10.9K viewsApocalypse Tutorial System
Kimichan1.3K viewsSupreme Son-in-law: Reborn With the Apocalypse System
Valerie snow 3.4K viewsThe Apocalypse Survivor Who Collects Dead Cities
Vallie27 viewsHer Perfect Betrayal
Mel Hope1.2K views