cted laundry across the couch,n dirty dishes in the sink, and abandoned pizza boxes near the kitchen.
Instead, the apartment looked less like a real home and more like a staged model no one actually occupied.
She placed the grocery bags on the kitchen counter.
Then she saw the shoes.
A pair of women’s low-heeled shoes in dark burgundy sat neatly beside the entryway wall. The toes were worn, and each shoe had a small gold buckle.
Evelyn recognized them without understanding why.
They were not hers.
She would never have chosen that style.
A hard pain struck the center of her chest.
