All Chapters of The Single Dad Next Door Loves Me: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The scarf was still warm, that was the first thing I noticed. It wasn't stiff with frost. It wasn't buried either. It laid there half crushed in the snow like it had fallen in a struggle.I picked it up slowly. My hands were steady, a little too steady. “She wouldn't have dropped this.” Lily whispered behind me. “She loves this scarf a lot.”I knew. I had given it to her a while ago, one of those days she was still new to my house. She said the color made feel safe. My chest holllowed out.Ben came closer, he scanned the ground. “These are drag marks.* The world narrowed when he said that. “What?” My voice came out wrong. Not loud or soft. I was just stripped of my composure for a minute.He pointed. He was right, up ahead were faint disturbances in the snow leading off the path toward the darker treeline. One set of deeper imoression. Another uneven trail beside it.“She didn't walk, that's for sure.” Ben said quietly.Something inside me lovked into place. The panic stopped. That w

The forest has grown darker long before the clock said it should.Snow gathered in the seams of the world, soft and quiet, swallowing every sound we made. Every step I took seemed to disappear behind me, as if the woods wanted to erase the trail entirely.But the trail was there. Lucas saw it first. He crouched low beside a broken patch is snow, brushing his gloved fingers across the surface while his flashlight cut through the darkness in a plate circle.“Drag marks.” He said quietly.I stepped closer, my chest tightening. Two long grooves carved through the snow.A struggle. I saw Boot prints and then something smaller. Mia.My jaw clenched so hard it hurt. We had been tracking for hours. The scarf had been the first clue. Half buried in the snow and still warm when I picked it up. Lucas had said nothing then but I saw the look in his eyes.Hope. Now the forest around us felt alone with it.“She fought him.” Lucas murmured.I didn't answer. I was staring deeper into the woods where

The trigger cocked loudly, Bradley wasn't bluffing, he was ready to end my life.The first shot was empty, the trigger pulled into reload, he chuckled like it was funny, my shoulders flinched in fear, my breath held, I blinked slowly, expecting death but yet I was alive and well—Surprisingly.When I looked over at Ethan, I saw his chest rise and fall so heavily. He swallowed painfully, the manly bulge in his throat flattened for some seconds before he managed to gain himself again.“Bradley!” The sheriff beside Ethan shouted. He was pointing his gun in his direction now. “That's enough. These games have to stop, you're going too far.”Bradley giggled behind me. “You think I'm here to joke. I said I want to make him feel the same way I did with my sister, if she doesn't die then how would he feel the same way I did?”He found this funny. Me trembling. Ethan on the edge, the sheriff tensed and the air suffocating. He liked all of it. This man was a psychopath.“What do you want, Bradle

“Do you think she'll make it?” A finger grabbed mine, squeezing tightly. My eyelid opened just enough to peak through the room I was but I didn't.Something beeped inside me. Slow and steady and annoyingly loud.The sound dragged me out of the darkness little by little, like someone pulling me through thick water.My head throbbed. My eyelids felt glued shut, heavy in a way that made opening them feeljke lifting stones.I tried anyway.Light spilled into my vision, harsh and white. The ceiling above me blurred for a moment before slowly settling into place. Plain tiles. A long fluorescent bulb humming softly.A hospital.The realization settled slowly into my bones. Then the pain followed. My wrist burned first. A deep, throbbing ache that pushed with every beat of my heart. I flinched and turned my head slightly, my gaze falling to the bandage wrapped tightly around it. White gauze, thick and stained faintly with pink beneath the layers.The memory came rushing back all at once. Brad

The room was quiet, except for the beeping sounds of the monitor strapped to Mia. She wore white. The hospital’s uniform for patients admitted. She looked good in it, her hair tied in a bun as she laid there like an angel descended from heaven.The door creaked loudly behind me, snapping everyone's attention my way. Mia turned gently, her eyes widened brightly when she saw me.“Ethan…” she whispered underneath her breath. “You're here.”I pulled away from the door, perched beside her bed. Her hand dangled with IV strapped to. it. I took the left arm and placed it to my chest.“I’m here.”“Took you a while.” She whispered again, “ a smirk flashed on her lips. “Where were you?”I noticed the way her chest rose and fell without control, the way her face drained of call, her lips were cracked and her eyes clouded. I noticed how Mia didn't look like Mia— and this was all my fault.“I’m sorry.” I whispered again. This time I meant it, not for coming in late but what I had done to her. Wha