CHAPTER ELEVEN : The Journal12Please respect copyright.PENANALrmgGiNOqy
(Her POV)
She didn’t mean to find it.
She was just looking for a hoodie in his drawer.12Please respect copyright.PENANA8qoKVJ4TIv
Something soft, something that smelled like him.12Please respect copyright.PENANA5Xtbl1hpwK
But under the folded fabric was leather—12Please respect copyright.PENANAq7Hg2QqzIc
old, cracked, and familiar in the way secrets always are.
A journal.
Her name was carved into the spine.12Please respect copyright.PENANAhIBSl11PNz
Not in full.12Please respect copyright.PENANAGKvYYaKYZe
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.12Please respect copyright.PENANAi3nB9znfCU
And fear?12Please respect copyright.PENANAB5w59cjnk7
Fear makes you reckless.
The first few pages were clinical.
Dates.12Please respect copyright.PENANAomrYUNQ3d0
Appointments.12Please respect copyright.PENANAUgFxEkLfzh
Clients.
Names she didn’t recognize.12Please respect copyright.PENANAK0aCmpr0AW
Stories she wished she could forget as she read them.
Women who came broken.12Please respect copyright.PENANATDaboawcF4
And left… not always whole.
Some pages were crossed out.12Please respect copyright.PENANAsCAxcYWQtM
Some had stains.12Please respect copyright.PENANAin9bG4ptJJ
Wine?12Please respect copyright.PENANAAS7gH078ki
Tears?
She wasn’t sure.
Then she saw it.
A page without a name.12Please respect copyright.PENANAHbwLyTLOdo
Only a title:
“Her.”
She sat down.
Hands trembling.
And read—
“She didn’t come in for pleasure.12Please respect copyright.PENANAttvoLm3Rqt
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,12Please respect copyright.PENANAAE62PkPYoS
I will lose her.”
“But if she never does…12Please respect copyright.PENANA7ExGrJ5gMy
I might lose myself.”
She stopped reading.
The words blurred.12Please respect copyright.PENANAGq1N9Udl6A
Hot tears dripped down the edge of the leather.
She closed the book and held it against her chest—12Please respect copyright.PENANAD4pR6iKg19
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.12Please respect copyright.PENANAird9QaJGzb
Sat beside her.12Please respect copyright.PENANA5y2TMWGszt
Didn’t touch her.12Please respect copyright.PENANAGCFaZr3iPN
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:
ns216.73.216.12da2“That’s the part I pray was wrong.”