I barreled toward my room with determination, then dropped down beside my bed and felt around the underside of the bedframe until I found the envelope. A pitiful, strained sound squeezed its way from my lungs before I uttered, “What the hell?” As if my brain needed a few seconds to catch up, I stared at the flat envelope—too flat to have as much money as I’d had in there—turning it over in my shaking hands while my heart rapidly climbed to an anxious, irregular beat. “Oh no. Oh fuck.” I tore the paper open, revealing what I’d already known. “No, no, no, no … no! Where is it?!” I dropped the
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