But it wouldn’t save Chloe.

I clicked the red button in the corner of the browser tab.

The screen went gray, and the banking portal logged me out.

I closed the laptop lid with a soft click.

The silence in my kitchen was heavy, broken only by the hum of the refrigerator.

I picked up my mug of cold coffee and took a sip, but it tasted like copper.

I unlocked my phone again and began to type.

“Whose name is on the lease?” I texted back.

The reply came almost instantly.

“Melanie Harper.”

I stood up so fast my wooden chair scraped loudly against the floor.

Melanie Harper.

I knew that name.

She had worked with Lucas at the consulting firm downtown.

She was the sharp junior associate who had suddenly vanished from the company directory last autumn.

I remembered Lucas telling me she had been let go for poor performance.

He had shrugged it off, calling her “unstable” over dinner one night.

I looked out the kitchen window at the grey Denver sky.

A light snow was beginning to fall, dusting the bare branches of the oak tree in the backyard.