2.
1947 Words
Marissa led River through a short hallway and into a quiet office furnished with simple chairs, muted colors, and a soft lamp that did nothing to calm the storm inside her. River sank into the chair stiffly, feeling every muscle in her back tense as she waited for answers, real answers this time. Marissa closed the door gently before taking the seat across from her.
“There’s no easy way to say this,” she began, folding her hands together on the desk. “But you deserve the truth, and you need to hear all of it.”
River swallowed hard. Her palms were already sweating.
Marissa continued. “The child we contacted you about—her name is Jessy.”
River nodded slowly. She had expected that part. The letter had mentioned the name, though barely.
“She’s nine,” Marissa added. “Turning ten in March. She’s… she’s been through a lot these past few days.”
River’s heart twisted. A child who had already lost everything? The weight of that alone made her throat tighten.
“What happened?” River asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Marissa exhaled softly, as though preparing herself. “Her parents, Geff and his wife Naomi, were involved in a car accident last week. It was a multi-vehicle collision on Ridgeway Crossing. Their car flipped twice. They… they didn’t survive.”
River stared at her.
For a long, suffocating moment, she forgot how to breathe.
Geff.
Naomi.
Dead.
The world spun. The room blurred at the edges. She closed her eyes, inhaling sharp and shaky. Geff, the man who had once broken her so completely she didn’t think she’d ever stand again. Naomi, the girl she had grown up with. A friend turned stranger. A familiar face turned into a ghost. River pressed her lips together, forcing herself back into the moment.
“How…” She cleared her throat. “How was I even connected to any of this?”
“That,” Marissa said softly, “is the part that surprised us too.”
She flipped open a folder and slid a document across the desk. A notarized letter. A will.
River’s name.
Written clearly.
Alongside another.
“They left Jessy in the care of two people,” Marissa explained. “Two people they trusted the most. You… and Jessy’s uncle.”
“Uncle?” River repeated, confused.
“Yes. Geff’s twin brother. He goes by the name—”
“No,” River cut in sharply, raising a hand. “Don’t say it.”
Marissa blinked in surprise.
River closed her eyes again, exhaling slowly. Of course. Of all the people in the world Geff would tie her to, even in death, it would be him. Ivan. The colder, harsher, more infuriating mirror of the boy she had once thought she loved. If Geff had broken her heart, Ivan had set it on fire. Their fights had been legendary. Their chemistry, volatile. Their distaste for each other? Mutual and loud.
River rubbed her temples. “You’re telling me I’m supposed to share custody of a child with him?”
“It was their wish,” Marissa said gently. “They were very clear. Jessy was to be raised by both of you. Together.”
River nearly laughed. It sounded more like a breathless choke. “They must’ve been out of their damn minds.”
Marissa didn’t defend them. She simply waited.
River leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling.
Geff and Naomi trusted her? After everything? After the scandal that tore the town apart? After the betrayal? The heartbreak? The humiliation she lived through because of him?
Why would they trust her with their child?
Why had Naomi, of all people, entrusted her child to her husband's ex?
“What about Geff’s family?” River asked numbly. “Or Naomi’s? Why not leave Jessy with them?”
“They did consider family,” Marissa said carefully. “But Geff’s parents are elderly, dealing with health issues. Naomi’s mother moved out of the country two years ago. And according to the will… they didn’t want Jessy growing up in an environment filled with conflict or instability.”
River stiffened.
Conflict. Instability.
Everything she had tried so hard to escape. Everything she had spent ten years avoiding.
“I don’t understand any of this,” River whispered. “I didn’t even know they were married.”
Marissa nodded sympathetically. “A lot has changed since you left Collen.”
River looked away, her voice trembling. “Apparently.”
The room grew quiet again.
Marissa stood and walked to a cabinet, retrieving a small folder. She placed it gently in front of River.
“These are the preliminary documents. Nothing to sign yet. The official appointment is tomorrow morning at nine. You and Ivan will meet Jessy together.”
A knot formed in River’s stomach. “Is Ivan… is he in town now?”
“He returned last night,” Marissa confirmed. “We contacted him immediately after the accident.”
River’s breath caught. Her chest tightened.
He was here.
Ivan. The man she vowed never to see again. The one who always seemed to see straight through her defenses and use every weakness against her. The one who had watched her fall apart the night everything happened and hadn’t lifted a finger to stop it.
She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t ready to face him.
“Thank you,” River said finally, pushing the folder away before she could crumble under the weight of everything. “I’ll be here tomorrow.”
Marissa gave her a reassuring smile. “You’re not alone in this, you know. It’s okay to be overwhelmed.”
River forced a tight smile. “Overwhelmed doesn’t even come close.”
By the time River left the CPS building, the late afternoon cold had deepened, biting through her coat. She wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck and walked aimlessly down the street, needing a moment, just one moment, to breathe.
Collen looked different. The buildings were brighter, the sidewalks cleaner, the streets busier. But beneath the shine, the ghosts whispered louder than ever. She found herself walking down Main Street, past the bakery that had been renovated into a café, past the bookstore that now had floor-to-ceiling windows and a neon sign, past the old gym that had doubled in size.
She tried not to think of Geff.
She tried not to think of Naomi.
She tried not to think of the child who had lost everything.
She tried not to think of the man she would have to see tomorrow—
But fate never cared about timing.
As she turned the corner, she stopped dead.
He was there.
Standing on the sidewalk, hands in his coat pockets, talking to someone on the phone. His back was to her, but she would have known him anywhere. The broad shoulders. The sharp lines. The tall, unmistakable frame. She had seen his pictures over the years appearing in business magazines. She would recognize those shoulders anywhere. Not that she was willing to admit that to anyone. She would rather die first.
Ivan.
A decade hadn’t softened him. If anything, time had carved him into something sharper. Something harder. Something dangerous.
River’s breath stilled.
He turned as though sensing her. Their eyes met.
For a split second, just a split second, the world tilted. His gaze darkened. Her pulse tripped. Something hot and unwelcome stirred in the pit of her stomach, a spark she crushed immediately.
She lifted her chin.
He narrowed his eyes. And just like that, the past slammed between them like a wall of fire. He ended the call slowly, eyes still locked on hers.
“Well,” Ivan said, voice deep, cool, and edged with something that felt too close to resentment, “if it isn’t the phoenix risen from the ashes.”
River scoffed. “If I’d known Collen still harbored rats, I would’ve taken a different street.”
His jaw twitched. A muscle pulsed near his temple.
“Still dramatic, I see,” he said.
“Still insufferable,” she shot back.
They stared, the tension thick enough to choke on.
Neither spoke.
Neither looked away.
And neither acknowledged the flicker of something electric humming dangerously beneath the surface.
Finally, Ivan stepped closer, his voice dropping. “You came back.”
“Not for you,” she snapped.
His eyes hardened, but for a moment, just a fraction, she saw something else. A flicker of something close to relief. Or longing. Or anger wrapped in longing.
“Good,” he muttered. “Because the last thing I need is you thinking I wanted you here.”
River swallowed, her heart pounding so loud she could feel it in her fingertips. “Don’t worry. I plan to avoid you the way I should’ve years ago.”
His lips curved in a humorless smirk. “Avoid me? That’ll be difficult.”
Her stomach twisted. “Why?”
Ivan’s eyes glinted with something cold.
“Because even if you keep denying it I am the only man who can still make you feel things, River, even if that is anger for now.”
Before she could respond, he brushed past her, the faint scent of his cologne hitting her like a memory she hadn’t asked for. She stood frozen as he walked away.
Her heart hammered.
Her chest ached.
And for the first time since she boarded the plane, she felt truly, terrifyingly unsteady.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
She was back.
River was back in town. Ivan couldn't breathe. The desire and longing burning through his veins was unbearable. The girl he'd spent years pretending he hated and a lifetime secretly yearning for was back.
What sort of torment was this? It was like he was back to ten years ago, when he had dreamed about her every night only to wake up to the realization that she was his brother's girlfriend. River had never been his, not truly.
Well, there was that one night they had let go of all inhibitions and let desire rule, it had been magical to be with River even just for that short period of time. But that night had ended in disaster also, and since she had had her in his bed in his life, even for one night. River had ruined him for another woman. Ivan hadn't been able to get her out of his head or his hearth, for that matter. That was something even River herself couldn't know. She would laugh and ridicule him and Ivan wasn't sure he could handle that coming from River.
He had expected her to change. To look different. To be older. Colder. Someone unrecognizable after ten years. But she was still River. Sharper. Stronger. Stunning in a way that made something inside him clench painfully. Her voice still stirred something he didn’t want to name. Her eyes still held storms. Her presence still rattled him to his bones.
And she was back in Collen.
Not as Geff’s girl.
Not as anyone’s.
Was she single? Married? Taken? Was she happy? Was she broken? Did she think of him? Had she ever?
He didn’t know.
All he knew was that the woman he had spent most of his life obsessing over, loving in silence, wanting in vain was standing in front of him again. And fate had just thrown them into the same storm.
He didn’t know how. He didn’t know why. But tomorrow… tomorrow he would find out exactly how tangled their lives were about to become. And he had a sinking feeling nothing would ever be the same again.
- Writer
