Three Baby Cribs and a Missing Set of Car Keys
He followed me, his hand reaching out as if to grab my arm, but he stopped when Shaun stood up from the back door. Shaun was holding a heavy iron pry bar in his right hand, his eyes fixed on the center of Ryan’s chest.
“Don’t touch her,” Shaun said, his voice very low, very quiet, and completely steady.
Ryan let his hand fall to his side, his fingers twitching against his thigh. He looked at Shaun, then at me, then down at the thick blue folder resting on the table next to his spare silver key ring.
“You’re ruining our lives over three thousand dollars,” he whispered, his eyes shining with a sudden, dark anger that looked like tears but wasn’t. “We worked five years for this place. We were the couple everyone wanted to be.”
“You were the person you wanted to be, Ryan,” I said. “The rest of us were just props for your camera.”
I reached down and picked up the silver key ring from the table, sliding it onto my own thumb before dropping it into my pocket. The metal was cold against my skin, but it felt solid, real, and mine.
