“I just want to be on the inside, just once,” he had whispered over champagne.

I fell in love with his hunger because I mistook it for ambition. I didn’t realize that hunger, if left unchecked, eventually eats everything around it.

Then came Apex Global Solutions.

Apex was the kind of company that turned people into polished, shark-like versions of themselves. Glass offices, security badges, and a culture of smiles that never reached the eyes. Leo became a manager there, and the title fit him like a bespoke suit. He started speaking in “deliverables” and “optics.”

And then, the rain. The screech of metal. The silence.

The doctors saved my life, a phrase people use as if breathing is the only requirement for living. My spine was damaged. Irreversible. Leo cried in the hospital, hot tears on my hand, promising he would be my legs, my strength, my anchor.