I can’t say things went back to normal after that — after all, I’d barely been the prima for two months before Damon Wilcox kidn*pped me — but it did feel as if everyone had been holding their collective breaths, waiting to see what I would do. After I realized there wasn’t much I could do except try to settle back in Jerome and put Connor Wilcox from my mind, I didn’t exactly stop hurting. However, I did find enough to occupy my time that those occasions when the pain welled up and threatened to overcome me gradually grew farther and farther apart.
After the first week, people stopped tiptoeing around me. I couldn’t stop Adam from giving me hopeful glances, as if he was thinking that now the Connor episode was safely behind me, he might have a chance again. I knew that would never happen
