Addie called just after noon, the vibration of my phone breaking the stillness of the room.
I stared at her name for a moment before answering. “Hey.”
“Don’t ‘hey’ me,” she said immediately. “You disappeared, survived something terrifying, and then went silent. Start explaining.”
I sat down slowly. “I didn’t know how.”
“Try now.”
I took a breath. “His name is Nathan.”
There was a pause on the line. “Okay. And who is Nathan?”
“I found him,” I said quietly. “On the side of the road. There’d been a car accident.”
“A what?”
“The road near the estate,” I explained. “His car had gone off the curve. He was injured, bleeding, barely conscious. He kept saying not to call the police.”
Addie exhaled sharply. “Anna… that’s how this started?”
“Yes. I brought him back to the estate. I didn’t
