VERA'S POV

Guilt weighed heavily on my chest as I listened to Monica recount the painful chain of events that had forced her into decisions she never would’ve made otherwise. She didn’t run away to be cruel, she did it out of fear. Fear of death. Fear of leaving the people she loved broken.

As Hannah drove us out of the compound, I looked around and imagined what could’ve been Monica’s home, her place to rule. Jack had lost everything when he went into that coma, but he’d clawed his way back and restored it all for her. He even promised more. Yet, fate had its own twisted sense of...