Ophelia’s POV:
The phone had begun to ring almost instantly, the vibration humming against the floor like a trapped hornet, but I couldn't move. I stared at the screen.
My heart was going haywire.
It was him.
It really had been him back there. I hadn't been imagining things; I hadn't been projecting my old traumas onto a stranger in the crowd. Max was back.
The realization hit me. I had been so stupid. So incredibly, dangerously stupid. I had brushed it off as paranoia.
Even when that "accidental" collision had left a blossoming, painful bruise around my shoulder, I had tried to rationalize it.
I looked down, my breath coming in shallow hitches as I stooped to pick up the phone. My throat felt tight, as if a hand were slowly closing around it. I didn't quite understand why the fear
