#Chapter 37- Roses

Cora The hospital’s sterile halls and beeping monitors had worn me down, but at least they were full of life and movement. I still had yet to pick up Riley from Rock’s place, and so when I returned home to my empty house, the halls around me were eerily silent. I shut the door behind me and sighed deeply into the empty space. Then I saw them: roses. Not just any roses, but dusky pink ones, carefully arranged in a crystal vase sitting on my kitchen table, sunlight spilling through the window and catching on their pretty petals. I froze. There was a card, elegant and tucked in among the bursts of pink. I walked over, caught somewhere between suspicion and something softer. I pulled the card free and read the handwriting inside. “For your strength, for your heart. Rest well and recover quickly. —Kingston.” My throat tightened. Kingston. Of course it was him. I pressed the card to my chest for a beat too long before setting it gently down. I didn’t know what this meant,