Chapter 4

I didn' t go home. I walked for hours, the city lights blurring.

The Legacy pulsed, a steady rhythm. 48 hours remaining.

My phone vibrated. A text from Victoria.

"Hope you' re having a good time, honey. Missing you. xx"

Missing me. While she was probably with him.

I sat on a park bench, the cold seeping into my bones.

Then, another DM from the anonymous account.

"Thought you might like to see how your wife really spends her 'late nights at the office.' "

A video.

It opened on Victoria, in lingerie I' d never seen, in a bedroom that wasn' t ours. Liam' s.

She was laughing, holding something. The first-edition "Gatsby" I' d bought her. She was using the dust jacket, the one with my inscription, to playfully fan Liam.

"He' ll never know," Liam' s voice, smug. "He' s too wrapped up in his dusty old books to notice anything."

Victoria giggled. "He's sweet, but so predictable."

Then, Liam pulled her close. "Forget him. Let's talk about us. About our future. Maybe even a little Walker to make it official?"

Victoria' s expression shifted. She looked into his eyes. "You really want that?"

"More than anything," Liam said.

Victoria smiled, a slow, calculating smile. "Alright. But we have to be careful. Ethan can' t suspect a thing. I' ll tell him... I' ll tell him the stress of his new research project is making me irregular again."

The video ended.

My stomach heaved. I barely made it to a trash can.

The anonymous account again.

"She chose me, history teacher. She' ll always choose me. Soon, everything you have will be mine."

Then, more messages. Details. Intimate, humiliating details of their encounters. Things she' d said about me.

I felt... nothing. A vast, cold emptiness.

The Legacy hummed, stronger now. "Erasure protocols initiated. Physical manifestations will begin to fade."

I looked at my hands. They seemed... fainter.

"The process is gradual, then final."

Good. I couldn't wait.