Cassidy sat on the edge of her couch, staring at the message from Nova on her phone. Her mind was swaying with emotions, the kind that left her both numb and aching at the same time. Nova texted her, apologizing for leaving abruptly and asking to meet up. Cassidy sighed deeply, feeling the weight of everything she had been through recently. Dave's marriage to Mira still roughed her up and has torn her mind, a fresh wound that hadn’t quite healed yet. The thought of seeing Nova, of facing him after everything that had happened, filled her with a sense of dread.
She thought of Ryan, Ryan was her world, her reason for everything. The idea of raising him without a mother's love seemed unbearable. She had to be strong, if not for herself, then for Ryan. He deserved to grow up in a stable envir
