For the third time that evening, Erin felt shock course through her like a punch in the gut, stealing her breath in one forceful slam, threatening to topple over her already fragile hold on reality. Indeed, she wouldn’t be surprised if she suddenly woke up to find that the past few hours had been nothing but a product of her already stressed out imagination. She could hear Ethan saying something, but she couldn’t make out anything through the frantic swirl of thoughts as her brain struggled to piece together a story that made more sense than the ridiculous notion that Nicky was somehow involved in all this…
She shook her head, and took a step back, her legs coming up against the chair and she sank down to it, the tightness in her chest a reminder that she had forgotten to breathe. She ope
