GRACE'S POV
Portland airport was smaller than I remembered, quieter. I grabbed my bags from the carousel and stood there for a minute trying to remember what I was supposed to do next. Rental car. I'd reserved a rental car. My brain felt foggy, pregnancy hormones mixing with exhaustion and the emotional hangover of leaving everything behind.
The rental place gave me a sensible sedan that smelled like air freshener and previous renters. I programmed my mom's address into the GPS and drove through streets that felt both familiar and foreign. I'd grown up here but that version of me—the girl who'd wanted to escape to New York, who'd believed modeling would be her ticket to something bigger—felt like a stranger now. That girl had been so naive, so hungry for validation, so ready to believe t
