237 Ks Zero Fs Chapter 09
By the time the flight touched down at Heathrow, night had already fallen over London.
Maya went back to her South Kensington apartment late and drew a hot bath.
She put her phone on silent, lay down in bed, and closed her eyes.
She knew nothing of what was happening back in Seattle.
Conor circled the empty townhouse like a rabid animal.
He smashed the Yeti cup against the stainless steel sink. Shards of ice and the thermos’s steel inner liner collided with a piercing clatter.
He hurled his phone at the oak floor. The screen spiderwebbed.
Then he saw it. The leather coaster on the kitchen island.
Navajo workshop. Hand-tooled leather. Their wedding anniversary initials stamped into the underside. The etched grooves were slightly blurred from water rings left by countless glasses.
Maya had pressed those initials in with her own hands. His Adam’s apple bobbed. He reached for it—
An identical coaster had once sat on another woman’s coffee table. He was the one who’d swapped them.
His hand froze in midair.
Two in the morning. The apartment lock clicked.
Hailey walked in wearing that Nordstrom silk camisole—Maya’s exact set. She’d used the spare key she’d secretly made to let herself in.
She saw Conor kneeling on the kitchen floor, surrounded by broken glass and scattered documents.
She ran over in small steps, crouched down, and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Conor? I saw Maya left the gala early tonight. Did she start another fight with you? I came to keep you com—”
She didn’t finish.
Conor turned around.
His forehead was still wrapped in the gauze from the airport medical station. Blood had already seeped through, dyeing the white bandage a dark rust-red.
He stared at the silk camisole on Hailey’s body. His eyes had the look of a man who’d just been stabbed and was slowly lowering his head to examine the wound.
Then that stunned look shattered.
“That nightgown.” His voice scraped out, bone-dry. “Where’s Maya right now?”
Hailey’s smile froze solid.