Chapter 112

Claire's POV The taxi ride back to the apartment passed in a blur of city lights and muffled sounds that seemed to come from another universe. I sat pressed against the window, my reflection staring back at me like a ghost—hollow-eyed, broken, barely recognizable as the woman who had walked into that café with nothing more than desperate longing to see the man I loved. Now I felt like I was drowning in plain sight, suffocating on the truth that had been laid bare in a single moment of casual intimacy between Theo and Daisy. The way she'd touched his arm. The way he'd smiled at her. The easy comfort between them that spoke of something I'd never had with him—the ability to exist together in public without shame, without scandal, without the constant weight of judgment and speculation. By the time I reached the apartment, my hands were shaking so violently I could barely fit the key into the lock. The beautiful space that had felt like a prison before now seemed like a mausoleum—a place