Chapter 10 - The Truth About the CollapseAt the hospital, Mia sat in a plastic chair outside Adrian’s room with a coffee she had not touched.
Caleb stood nearby, speaking quietly with officers.
The doctors had stabilized Adrian. Whatever Marcus had helped arrange had weakened him, but it had not been enough to kill him.
Mia hated that word.
Kill.
It made the afternoon feel too real.
She had thought she was living a small life full of small humiliations. Bad tips. Long shifts. Rent notices. Marcus’s insults.
Then a man collapsed outside the café, and suddenly her small life had touched something enormous.
Caleb approached her.
“You should go home,” he said.
“I don’t really want to be alone right now.”
He nodded and sat beside her.
For a while, neither spoke.
Then Mia asked, “Why did Adrian come to the café if he knew it was dangerous?”
“He suspected Marcus,” Caleb said. “But suspicion is not proof. Adrian wanted to draw out the person behind him.”
“That’s a terrible plan.”
Caleb almost smiled. “Most of his plans are.”
Mia looked toward Adrian’s room. “So he let himself walk into a trap?”
“He thought he could control it.”
“But he collapsed.”
“Yes,” Caleb said. “Because betrayal is always more dangerous when it comes from someone who used to stand beside you.”
Mia looked down at her hands.
“Why did he trust me?”
Caleb’s expression softened.
“He watched you once.”
Mia frowned. “What?”
“Two months ago, an elderly homeless man came into the café asking for water. Marcus yelled at him. After your shift, you brought him food outside.”
Mia remembered.
She had not known anyone noticed.
“Adrian notices people who choose kindness when it costs them something,” Caleb said.
May you like
Mia’s throat tightened.
For the first time that day, she almost cried.
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