NOVA POV
Grant had been gone for twelve hours. Twelve hours of pacing the enormous house, jumping at every sound, watching the boys play with toys they didn’t want in a room that felt like a gilded cage.
Fuck. I was losing my mind.
The boys were in the playroom with one of the nannies Grant had hired; another thing he’d done without asking . Phoenix had finally stopped crying every few minutes, but only because he’d exhausted himself. Asher had barely spoken since we arrived.
I missed Sam. God, I missed him so much it physically hurt.
I missed Petals Creek, missed Mabel and the diner and my tiny apartnt above the hardware store. Missed the simplicity of Elizabeth Moore’s life.
But Elizabeth Moore was dead. And Nova Hart was trapped in a mansion with a man who’d just left to commit murder.
My phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number: I’m outside the gates. Security won’t let in. Tell them it’s okay. - Katie
Katie?
I ran to the window overlooking the front drive. Sure enough, a car sat at the gates, security guards blocking it.
Katie was here. After six years of silence, mostly because I asked her not to really reach out so she doesn’t get tracked to by Lena or Grant. And now Katie was here.
I’d lied to Grant about Katie. Told him she’d called once about my godmother and that was it. But the truth was ssier than that.
Katie had been texting for years. Nothing consistent and nothing that could be traced back to her helping hide. Just occasional check-ins. You okay? Still safe? Lena’s asking about you again.
She’d never told anyone and never betrayed . Even when Lena had probably pressured her, she’d kept my secret till they finished school and she was finally on her own.
And now she was here.
I called down to security. "Let her through. She’s a friend."
Five minutes later, Katie stood in the foyer, and I barely recognized her. The party girl I’d known in college was gone. In her place was a woman in a tailored blazer and jeans, her hair cut in a sophisticated bob, carrying two large gift bags.
"Nova." She said my na like she was testing it. "Or do you prefer Elizabeth now?"
"It’s Nova again." I walked down the stairs, not sure what to expect. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard through the grapevine that you were back. And that you’d married Grant Calloway." She gestured around the foyer. "Or about to, anyway. Wedding’s tomorrow, right?"
"Day after tomorrow. How did you know about that?"
"I have my sources." She smiled, but it was sad. "Can we talk? Please? I’ve been wanting to do this for six years."
I led her to one of the sitting rooms—one of many I’d discovered in this massive house. We sat on opposite couches, the gift bags between us.
"Those are for the boys," Katie said, noticing my gaze. "I heard you had twins. That they’re five now." Yeah, I chose not to give her too many details since I still wasn’t sure whose side she was on.
"Six last month." The words ca out automatically. "Phoenix and Asher."
"Good nas." She fidgeted with her purse. "Nova, I’m so sorry. For everything that happened. For not stopping Lena, for not speaking up when—"
"You couldn’t have stopped her." I cut her off. "Nobody could have. Lena was... she was determined to destroy ."
"But I could have warned you. Could have told you what she was planning. I knew she was angry, knew she was eting with her mom, but I didn’t think—" Katie’s voice cracked. "I didn’t think she’d go that far. And when the video ca out, when you disappeared, I was terrified. Terrified that sothing worse had happened to you."
"You texted ," I said quietly. "All these years. Why didn’t you just tell you knew where I was?"
"Because I was protecting you." Katie leaned forward. "Lena kept asking, she kept digging and trying to find out where you’d gone. I pretended I didn’t know. I had to lay low as if I was on her side so she’d trust , so she’d tell what she was planning next. I needed to make sure she wasn’t coming after you."
I felt tears prick my eyes. "You’ve been protecting this whole ti?"
"Soone had to." Katie wiped her own eyes. "You were my friend, Nova. My best friend too. And I let you down when you needed most. So yeah, I’ve spent six years making up for it by keeping tabs on Lena, by making sure nobody found you, by—" She stopped. "By being there in the only way I could without blowing your cover."
"I thought you’d sided with her. I thought you believed what she said about ."
"Never." Katie’s voice was firm. "I knew what you and Grant had was real. ssy and complicated and probably a terrible idea, but real. And Lena destroyed it because she was jealous and cruel, just like her mother."
We sat in silence for a mont. Then Katie asked the question I’d been dreading.
"Are you happy? Being back here? Marrying him?"
Was I happy? I didn’t even know what happiness felt like anymore.
"The boys hate it here," I said instead. "They miss Sam. They won’t even look at Grant. And I..." I took a shaky breath. "I feel like I’m drowning. Like I gave up everything—Sam, Petals Creek, Elizabeth—for a man who’s currently in Chicago planning to kill his ex-wife."
Katie’s eyes widened. "He’s what?"
I told her everything. About Bianca’s threats, about Grant leaving with a gun, about the security and the fear and the boys calling for Sam every night.
"Jesus, Nova. This is..." Katie ran her hand through her hair. "This is insane."
"I know."
"You could still leave. Take the boys and—"
"And what? Go back to hiding? Grant would find . He’d take the boys. I don’t have a choice anymore, Katie. I haven’t had a choice since he walked into that house."
"There’s always a choice."
"Not when you’re dealing with Grant Calloway." I stood up, walked to the window. "He gave an ultimatum. Marry him or lose my sons. So I’m marrying him. Because at least this way, I get to stay with them."
"That’s not love, Nova. That’s imprisonnt."
"Maybe. But it’s the best option I have." I turned back to her. "And sowhere under all this ss, I do still love him. I hate that I do, but I can’t turn it off. Six years away, six years with Sam, and I still love Grant Calloway. How fucked up is that?"
Katie walked over, pulled into a hug. "It’s not fucked up. It’s human. Love doesn’t follow rules or make sense. It just is."
I hugged her back, crying into her shoulder like we were twenty-two again and the world made sense.
"I’ve missed you," I whispered.
"I’ve missed you too. So much."
We pulled apart, both wiping our eyes and laughing at how much of a ss we were.
"Can I et them?" Katie asked. "The boys?"
"Are you sure? They’re not exactly friendly to strangers right now."
"I’m sure."
I led her to the playroom where Phoenix and Asher were building sothing with blocks under the watchful eye of the nanny.
"Boys, this is my friend Katie. She brought you presents."
Phoenix looked up, suspicious. "What kind of presents?"
Katie smiled, setting down the gift bags. "Why don’t you open them and see?"
Cautiously, the boys approached. Phoenix opened his bag first, pulling out a wooden train set. They were hand-carved, beautiful, the kind Sam would have made.
His face lit up for the first ti since we’d arrived. "A train!"
"I heard you like trains," Katie said. "This one’s special. It’s made by a craftsman in Vermont. Each piece is unique."
Asher opened his bag, finding a set of art supplies, markers, colored pencils, a sketchbook, watercolors.
"I heard you like to draw," Katie said softly.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"I’ve been keeping tabs, rember?" She winked. "I wanted to get them sothing that mattered. Sothing that felt like ho."
"Thank you," I whispered. "This is..."
"It’s what friends do." Katie crouched down next to the boys. "Your mom and I used to be best friends. A long ti ago. And I’m hoping we can be friends again."
"Why weren’t you friends anymore?" Phoenix asked, the train already assembled in front of him.
"Because I made a mistake. I hurt your mom when I should have protected her. But I’m trying to make up for it now." She looked at . "If she’ll let ."
"Of course I will," I said, my voice thick with emotion. "I’ve missed having a friend who knows the real . All of . Nova and Elizabeth."
"Who’s Elizabeth?" Asher asked, looking up from his new sketchbook.
I froze. The boys didn’t know. They still thought my na was Elizabeth Moore.
"Elizabeth was... a nickna," Katie covered smoothly. "Like how Phoenix is sotis called Nix. Your mom had a nickna too."
"Oh." Asher seed satisfied with that answer and went back to his drawing.
Katie stayed for three more hours. She played trains with Phoenix, admired Asher’s drawings, and made the boys laugh in a way they hadn’t since we’d left Petals Creek.
When it was ti for her to leave, I walked her to the door.
"Thank you," I said. "For coming, the thoughtful gifts and everything."
"I should have co sooner. Should have been there all along." Katie squeezed my hand. "But I’m here now. And Nova Whatever happens with Grant and Bianca and all of this—I’ve got your back. Like I should have six years ago."
"I know."
"And if you need to run again—if things get bad—you call . I’ll help you disappear. For real this ti."
"Katie—"
"I’m serious. I have resources now, legit Connections and my own money. so if you need to get out, I’ll make it happen." She pulled a card from her purse. "This is my new number. It’s secure. Only you have it. Use it if you need anything."
I took the card, tucked it in my pocket. "Thank you."
"That’s what friends do." She hugged one more ti. "Be safe, Nova. And congratulations on the wedding. I hope it’s everything you want it to be."
After she left, I went back to the playroom. Phoenix was running his train along the track Katie had helped him build. Asher was drawing what looked like our old apartnt in Petals Creek.
"Mama?" Phoenix looked up. "I like your friend Katie. She’s nice."
"She is nice," I agreed.
"Can she co back?"
"I hope so, baby."
"Can Dad Sam co back too?"
And just like that, the brief mont of happiness shattered.
"I don’t know, Phoenix. I don’t know."
He went back to his train, but I could see the hope dying in his eyes. The acceptance that Sam was really gone.
I pulled out my phone, looked at Katie’s card. A lifeline. An escape route if I needed it.
But even as I thought about running, I knew I wouldn’t. Because Grant was right about one thing: the boys deserved their father. They deserved the Calloway na, the opportunities, the future only he could give them.
Even if it ant sacrificing my own.
My phone buzzed with a text from Grant: It’s done. Coming ho. See you tomorrow.
It’s done?
That can only an Bianca is dead. And that ans Grant had killed her or maybe had her killed. Either way, the threat was eliminated.
And the man I was marrying in two days was a murderer.
I looked at Phoenix playing with his train, at Asher drawing his mories, and wondered what kind of world I’d brought them into.
What kind of monster I’d agreed to marry. And whether any of us would survive it intact.
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