It was hers.
The pendant in the evidence bag - the one clutched in the boy's dying hand - was hers.
More specifically, it was his. Max's. The same one she had given him months ago when she thought love meant something. A small, delicate charm engraved with the letter E - for Erica. A piece of her that once felt innocent, now twisted into something unrecognizable.
She staggered back from the evidence locker, the image burned into her brain. She wanted to scream. She wanted it to be fake. A mistake. A cruel trick. Anything but this.
Her mind spun. Why would the boy have it? Had Max dropped it? Left it behind? Did it fall during something terrible?
Tears poured silently down her face.
She wanted Max to explain. She needed him to explain. He had to tell her it meant nothing. That it was old. Lost. Anything that could make this unbearable weight make sense.
Her phone buzzed.
A message from Max.
*Hey, let's go on a date? Been a while, hasn't it? :) *
Her breath caught in her throat. The timing. It was too perfect. Too horrifying. But she needed answers. And she needed to see his pendant.
She agreed.
When they met, it felt like sitting across from a stranger in a skin she used to love. Max looked relaxed, charming even - like nothing was wrong in the world.
But Erica... she was drowning inside.
Between glances, her eyes drifted to his neck. The chain was there. The one she had gifted. But... the E was gone.
She stared at it, heart hammering.
Finally, she asked, voice barely a whisper, "Where's the pendant? The letter?"
He looked down, then shrugged. "Oh. I think it got lost. Must've fallen off somewhere."
That casual smile. That innocence. That unawareness.
He didn't know. He didn't know the boy had died with it in his hands.
And somehow, that made it worse.
Panic gripped her chest. The air around her felt too thick, too sharp. She stood up abruptly.
"I-I have to go."
Max frowned. "Erica, what's-"
But she didn't wait.
She ran. Out of the café. Down the street. Every heartbeat screaming with confusion, fear, and something darker:
Was Max hiding something... or was someone else using his name to tear her apart?
She burst through her front door, slammed it shut, and collapsed onto the floor, sobbing.
She didn't know what to believe anymore.