And the matching pajamas I had kept tucked away in the closet, the ones Dennis and I once wore together,

They were wearing them right now. Dennis and Beryl, standing in my apartment, dressed in my pajamas.

My mind went blank. The words tore out of me before I could stop them.

"Dennis! How could you bring her here? You know this is where we..."

I didn't finish. Beryl's hand was already moving. She slapped herself across the face with practiced precision, her cheek blooming red in an instant. She stepped in front of Dennis, eyes brimming with tears, and stared me down.

"Mrs. Sanchez, I just wanted to understand what Dennis's life was like before. I begged him to bring me here." Her lip trembled. "If it upsets you, I'll get on my knees and apologize. Just please stop hurting him."

Dennis looked shattered. He cradled her face in both hands, blowing gently on the mark she'd made herself.

Then he glanced at the bodyguard behind me. One look. That was all it took.

Hands clamped down on my arms. A palm the size of a dinner plate cracked across my cheek. Then again. And again. My ears rang, a high-pitched whine drowning out everything else.

I don't know how long it lasted before they finally stopped and let go.

I crumpled to the floor. Dennis looked down at me, his expression flat, utterly unmoved.

"Vee, why do you insist on making things difficult for yourself? If you're not feeling well, go home and rest. Why chase me all the way here just to start trouble?"

A bitter laugh scraped out of my throat.

"Go home? Do I still have a home? Is that place even mine anymore?"

I looked up at him, eyes burning. Tears and blood from my nose dripped onto the floor between us.

"Dennis, why did you have to bring her here?"

"You can go wherever you want to fool around. I don't care anymore. But why did you have to defile this place?"

"The Dennis Sanchez at thirty is rotten to the core. So why did you have to destroy the only memory the twenty-year-old version of you ever left me?"

Something flickered behind his eyes. A tremor, barely there.

Then it was gone, swallowed by rage.

"Rotten to the core? How am I rotten? Don't forget, Veronica, if it weren't for me, you'd have spent your whole life crammed into a dump like this!"

"And don't forget, the money you used to buy this place came out of my account! This is mine too! I'll do whatever I want with it!"

His fury twisted into a laugh.