After months on the run and a Con Air flight through the federal system, I’m sent back to Baton Rouge — and into L2, the notorious “gay line” of East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

This is my first time there: the humiliating intake, the pastel-pink holding tank, the absurd telephone relay between cells, and the moment I saw him again — the man who betrayed me, spent my money, and still somehow made my heart ache when he jumped into my arms.

A study in what love looks like when it’s poisoned — and what survival feels like when you still crave the poison.