---
His apartment looked out over my grave.
The locked second bedroom — I understood now. He'd kept everything from my time at the estate in there. All of it. A decade later, most of it had faded or crumbled at the edges.
What had stopped my breath completely was what sat in the center of the bed: a black lacquered box, set neatly on the pillow.
My ashes.
He had been sleeping beside them. For years.