I locked up the bar, the night finally over. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally. The weight of the day, the hours spent pretending everything was fine, was finally catching up with me. As I drove home, my mind raced with a million thoughts. Shawn. Saint, well Carter.
Shawn had been my world for so long. He was my high school sweetheart, my everything. My life revolved around him—his dreams, his needs, his problems. I thought it was love. I thought we were invincible. And yet, here I was—stuck.
I thought about Carter, or Saint, as he called himself. He was a stranger, someone I knew barely anything about. But tonight, when he looked at me, I felt seen in a way I hadn’t in a long time. His gaze was different, like he saw past the bruises, past the smile I put on every day. H
