Elena POV
The apartment building looked smaller than I remembered, though I supposed everything from childhood does when you finally see it again as an adult.
"You don't have to go in," Ariston said, beside me on the sidewalk. "We can just look at it from here, if that's enough."
"I need to go in." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "I've spent twenty-one years avoiding this street entirely. I think I'm done avoiding things."
The current tenants, contacted weeks ago through channels Ariston had quietly arranged, had agreed to let us in for an hour. A young couple, kind enough not to ask too many questions, showed us to the door and then retreated to give us privacy.
The kitchen was different. New cabinets, different flooring, the specific renovations of twenty years of other people living their lives in a space that had once held the worst morning of mine.
I stood in the doorway for a long moment.
"This is where you found her," Ariston said quietly. Not a question.
