Jennifer’s POV
The door creaked open, low and deliberate, the sound scraping across the silence of the morning. I was sitting at the edge of the couch, my hands folded tight in my lap, trying not to fidget with the hem of my sleeve.
Jack stepped out.
He didn’t say anything at first. Just stood there, shadow heavy against the frame, eyes fixed on me in that way of his—too steady, too unreadable, like he was searching for something in me he had no intention of voicing aloud.
The silence stretched until I thought I might drown in it. Then, finally, he spoke.
“I’ll take you to the Northern Ridge.”
Just like that. Flat. Without hesitation.
My breath caught, a tiny stutter I swallowed down before it could become sound. Relief, sharp and strange, washed over me all at once. Relief that I w
