Daxton Seagulls soared over our heads, waves crashing in the distance as the wind kept blowing her hair back. Everything was harsh with her. The world and now, this damned wind. Verena leaned back on her hands—numb—as she stared ahead—into nothing. She now looked so calm, peaceful, and lost compared to the past two hours when she had a meltdown in the car when I had taken the phone out of her reach and had threatened to hurl it out of the moving car if she wouldn’t stop asking for it. The tears on her face ripped my heart out completely. I’d never seen her this broken and right now, I wanted to hunt down whoever was behind that article. Her gaze jerked up to mine and she held out her hand. “Can I have my phone now?” That damned phone. Again. “Nope” “I would not cause a scene or

