Sadie’s POV
I was walking outside the university library when I froze.
He was sitting on the bench outside the library looking around him. Searching for someone.
Derek.
I almost didn't recognize him. He had lost weight – not the kind of weight loss that comes from exercise and discipline, but the kind that comes from not eating, from sleepless nights, from a body consuming itself. His face was thinner, the angles sharper, and the easy smile that had once been his most effective weapon was nowhere in sight.
He stood when he saw me, and the movement was uncertain, hesitant, like a man who knew he wasn't welcome but had run out of other options.
"Sadie."
I stopped walking. Ten feet between us. The campus was thinning out – a few students drifting toward the parking lot, a couple sit
