Part 40 | H E R • M O T H E R

My hands are shaking. They’ve been shaking pretty much all day. Every time I think about Adam, the shakes start. How I haven’t managed to break a cup, I’m not sure.

He looks the same yet different. He looks hardened to the world. The light that used to live in his eyes has dulled. But he’s still as handsome as ever, if not even more so with age.

Adam never looked like a boy. He was always very much a man, even at eighteen. But now, he’s reached his full potential. He seems even bigger somehow.

Or maybe it was just his anger that made him seem bigger, more imposing.

All that anger, and it was reserved solely for me.

The guy I left behind all those years ago was not the man I saw today.

I have to wonder if I’m to blame for that.

I glance at the clock. Five minutes until the end of my shift. Five

minutes until Adam is here, and he wants his answers.

Answers I can’t give him.

So, I’m going to have to lie, something I never wanted to do.

I thought there was a slim possibility that I might