“Leave what belongs to the apartment,” my father said softly.

“Take only what belongs to your future.”

“I’m taking it,” I said.

A heavy metallic click echoed down the long hallway, followed by firm footsteps on the hardwood.

Cole came around the corner with a tall uniformed police officer who stayed three steps behind him.

His designer coat was gone, replaced by a dark wool jacket with a missing button on the right cuff, and his hands hung loosely in his pockets, his platinum cuff links gone.

He stopped ten feet from where my father and I stood.