Damien’s POV
I was already reaching for my car keys before Ophelia could respond.
"Whoa." She caught my arm, her grip surprisingly strong. "Slow down, Damien. We need to think this through."
"Think what through?" I shook her off, my heart racing with the first real hope I’d felt in three weeks. "If Sera’s there, I need to get to her now."
"And what if she’s not? What if we’re wrong?" Ophelia’s voice was gentle but firm. "You’ve been holding it together by a thread. I won’t watch you fall apart if this is another dead end."
Her words hit like cold water. She was right. I’d been surviving on pure willpower and desperation. If this didn’t pan out...
"But what if she is there?" I asked quietly. "What if she’s been there this whole ti, and I’ve been searching in all the wrong places?"
Ophelia studied my face for a long mont. "Then we go get her. Together. But we do this smart, okay?"
I nodded, though every instinct scread at to get in the car and drive until I found her.
"Do you even know where Caleb lives?"
"I can find out."
An hour later, I stood in my driveway, keys in hand, watching Ophelia throw an overnight bag into her car. The sun was already setting, painting the sky orange and pink. We’d lost daylight, but I couldn’t wait until morning. Not when I might be hours away from holding Sera again.
The front door opened, and Adrian appeared on the porch in his pajamas, his dark hair sticking up at impossible angles.
"Daddy?" His voice was small, uncertain. "Where are you going?"
My heart clenched. "I have to go sowhere for work, buddy."
"At nightti?"
I knelt down to his level, looking into those silver-blue eyes that were so much like mine. "Sotis grown-up work happens at weird tis."
Adrian studied my face with that unnerving perception children sotis possessed. "Are you going to look for Mama?"
The question hit like a punch to the chest. I’d been so careful, so sure I was hiding the truth from him. But kids saw more than adults gave them credit for.
"What makes you think that?"
"She’s been gone a really long ti," Adrian said quietly. "And you’re sad. Like. Even when you smile."
I closed my eyes for a mont, fighting back tears. When I opened them again, Adrian was still watching with that patient, knowing expression.
"Yeah, buddy," I said finally. "I’m going to look for Mama."
"Can I co?"
"No, sweetheart. You need to stay here with Ms. Sarah and take care of Lily."
"But I want to help find her too." His bottom lip wobbled slightly. "I miss her so much, Daddy."
I pulled him into my arms, holding him tight against my chest. "I know you do. I miss her too."
"Is she lost?"
"She had to go away for a little while," I said carefully. "But I’m going to find her and bring her ho. I promise."
The drive to the border took four hours. Four hours of tense silence, broken only by Ophelia’s occasional directions from the GPS and the sound of my hands gripping the steering wheel so tight my knuckles went white.
Every mile took us further from civilization and deeper into rural territory. Towns gave way to farmland, then to forests and mountains. The kind of place where people went when they wanted to disappear.
"Turn left at the next intersection," Ophelia said, squinting at her phone in the dim light.
I turned onto a narrow two-lane road that seed to wind through endless trees. "How much further?"
"According to this, about ten miles to the town center."
The perfect place to hide from a world that had beco too painful to face.
"Damien," Ophelia said softly. "What are you going to say to her? If she’s there?"
I’d been asking myself the sa question for the past four hours. What did you say to the woman who’d walked out of your life because she thought she wasn’t good enough?
"I don’t know," I admitted. "I’ll figure it out when I see her."
The town appeared around a bend in the roadsmall, quiet, exactly what I’d expected. A few houses scattered along the main street, a general store with a neon "Open" sign flickering in the window, and in the distance, the glow of what looked like a repair shop.
Morrison’s Auto Repair. The sign was old but well-maintained, and there were lights on in the building behind it.
I pulled into the gravel parking lot, my heart hamring against my ribs. This was it. Either Sera was here, or I was about to face another crushing disappointnt.
"You ready for this?" Ophelia asked.
"No."
But I got out of the car anyway.
The house behind the repair shop looked lived-in and welcoming. Warm light spilled from the windows, and I could see the flicker of what might be a television in the living room.
I walked up to the front porch, my legs feeling like lead.
I raised my hand to knock, then froze as I heard voices from inside.
A man’s voice. Deep, familiar.
And then... a woman’s laugh.
Soft, musical, heartbreakingly familiar.
My heart stopped completely, then started beating so fast I thought it might burst. She was here. She was actually here.
I pounded on the door with enough force to rattle the fra.
"Sera!" I called out, not caring who heard . "Sera, I know you’re in there!"
The voices inside went silent. Footsteps approached the door, but they were too heavy to be hers.
The door opened, and Caleb Morrison stood there, looking exactly as I rembered him. Tall, broad-shouldered, with that easy confidence that had always annoyed . His blonde hair was mussed, like he’d been running his hands through it, and he was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt that made him look like he belonged here.
Unlike , in my expensive suit and desperation.
"Damien?" I could see the surprise and wariness in his eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"Is she here?" The words exploded out of with all the desperation I’d been holding back for three weeks. "Is Sera here?"
Sothing flickered across Caleb’s face.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," he said evenly.
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