I couldn’t stop replaying the scene at Nicolas’s home in my mind as I drove. Stella’s warm, oblivious smile, Nicolas’s tense posture, and the framed photos of their perfect little family etched themselves into my thoughts. The tightening knot in my chest refused to ease, no matter how hard I gripped the wheel.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Nicolas was mine, wasn’t he?
But his anger haunted me. The way he grabbed my arm, his eyes full of fury… I didn’t like it. I hated it.
Reaching for my phone at a stoplight, I typed out a message.
“In the middle of the road, my car is knocked. I need help.”
My thumb hovered over the send button for a second longer than it should have, but I hit it anyway.
He would come. He had to.
I pulled over to the shoulder of the road, my heart racing as
