Chapter 2

Nora's POV

When I woke up, I was in a hospital. The doctor said it was lucky they'd gotten me there in time, or I might not have made it.

I ended the podcast early, curled up in the corner, and felt the cold settle into my chest.

For two weeks I'd been turning it over in my head: how to bring up getting back together, how to save what was left of us.

And him? He'd already moved in with another woman.

It felt like a giant hand had reached in and torn my heart apart.

It took me a long while to come back to myself. I wiped my eyes and texted my dad.

"Dad, I'm thinking of coming home."

"Give me three days. I'll wrap things up here, and then I'm never coming back to this city."

My dad called me right away.

"Nora. Did someone hurt you?"

I said no, and then the tears came like rain.

He'd never wanted me with Ryan in the first place. He'd wanted me back home, where he could help me find a good job and settle into a quiet, steady life.

But I was young and stubborn, full of love and reckless courage, and I'd made up my mind to stay in New York with Ryan and build something that was ours.

My dad begged me to reconsider. Ryan even came back home with me, dropped to his knees in front of my father, sobbing.

"Sir, please, give me a chance. I'll spend my whole life being good to her. I'll work hard. I'll give her a good life."

"Sir, you have to believe me. I'm broke right now, but I swear she'll never want for anything."

My dad threw him out of the house anyway.

After that, to be with Ryan, I cut off almost all contact with my own father. In all my years in New York, I never went home once.

The guilt of it crushed me. I cried so hard I could barely get the words out.

"Dad, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

When Ryan and I first got together, the whole world was just the two of us. He remembered every anniversary, put together little surprises with his own hands. Three years after we graduated, he proposed. He held up a tiny, glittering diamond ring and dropped to one knee.

"Nora, if you don't mind that the ring is small, will you marry me?"

I looked at that pitiful little diamond, and my whole heart melted. I nodded, and he swept me up and spun me around.

But then his father fell ill, bedridden, and the medical bills piled up day after day. I emptied my savings into it, went to the hospital to sit with him whenever I had a free moment, did everything I could for Ryan's family.

A year later, his father passed.

At the funeral, Ryan's mother held my hand and cried, thanking me over and over.

"Nora, you're such a good girl. Once you two are married, I'll always have your back. If Ryan ever does you wrong, I'll break his legs myself."

His little sister, Megan, kept calling me her sister-in-law, eyes red, swearing she'd grow up and pay me back someday.

I shook my head. "I don't want anything back. Once Ryan and I save up the down payment on a big place, I'll move all of you in with us. We'll be one family, together for good."

And now, finally, Ryan and I had come out the other side.

His career took off. He got promoted fast, then struck out on his own and made it work. The company found its footing. We bought the house. The wedding was on the calendar.

And then he betrayed me.

What a cruel joke.

On the phone, my dad's voice was heavy.

"Nora, if you're really not happy, come home. I told you the day you left. I'll always be the wall at your back."

I just kept nodding. The tears had already broken loose.

I booked a flight out for three days later and started packing.

In the storage boxes were the things I'd once treasured. The ninety-nine love letters he'd written me in college. The cheap little gift he'd given me the first time, the one I'd kept all these years. The graduation photo of the two of us.

The memories flooded in, every one of them, and they felt like mockery now. Eight years of giving and waiting, all of it worthless. All of it laughable.

I burned every last piece.

And with those treasured memories, eight years went up in ash.

I didn't sleep all night.

The next morning, the stranger's number that had sent me the video sent one more message.

"We should talk."

"Right now. The café downstairs from his office."