Are you ready?

At 11:47 p.m., the telephone rang. Mara Vale had been asleep for less than an hour. She lay still in the darkness of her grandmother's old house, listening to the rain against the windows. At thirty-six, she had learned not to fear loneliness. She had built a life around it. A successful career. A beautiful home. Friends she trusted. A carefully controlled heart. Then the telephone rang again. The antique burgundy receiver sat on the bedside table. It had belonged to her grandmother. It hadn't been connected for years. Mara stared at it. The phone rang a third time. She reached for it. "Hello?" Silence. Then a man's breathing. Her entire body went still. "Mara." Her eyes closed. Eight years. Eight years since she had heard that voice. "Adrian?" "Yes." Her hand tightened around the receiver. "Where have you been?" A pause. "Trying to stay alive." Her anger arrived before her tears. "You don't get to call me after eight years and say something like that." "I know." "You don't get to disappear." "I know." "You don't get to—" "I never stopped loving you." The words silenced her. Outside, thunder rolled across the city. Mara swallowed. "Why now?" "Because I'm coming home."