All Chapters of Dear Ex, I'm Your Godmother Now: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

Freya Luke's voice echoed at the other end of the line, the sound crackling through my earpods as I shuffled the last of my files into my briefcase. "—I mean it, Freya. Milan wants you in that room. You're the only one they trust. Half the reason Calloway Textiles has a European pipeline at all is because of the deal you stitched together last quarter." I checked my watch. Two forty. My flight left at six. "Tell Simon to save me a seat by the window," I said, smiling despite myself. "I'll stop by the house first—grab a few things—then I'll meet you at the airport. We still have two hours before boarding, and traffic's light today." "You're a machine, Calloway." I chuckled. "Just efficient." Hanging up, I slid the phone into my pocket, already running through my checklist. Passport in the side compartment. Charger. The Milan folder with the revised terms I'd stayed up till two a.m. rewriting. Adrian would be at the office—he'd left before I woke, as usual—so the house would be

FreyaPain was the first thing that registered. My shoulders, ribs, my head. I tried to open my eyes and the world came in smeared pieces.Dark. Then green. Then a ceiling of black branches scribbled across a gray sky, moving in a wind I couldn't feel. Mud against my cheek. The smell of it—wet earth, rotting leaves, something metallic underneath that I understood, dimly, was me.The woods. I was in the woods.How long had I been out? An hour? A night? I turned my head and the movement detonated through my skull. A sound crawled out of me—half moan, half word."Help…"No one answered. Of course no one answered.They'd left me here. That was the thought that found its way through the fog before any other—they left me here—and with it came the rest, the whole terrible reel, Adrian's face over the edge of the balcony, his fingers loosening one by one, Selene's smile—The tears came hot and shameless, mixing with the mud on my face.He let me go.I'm voice slipped out, barely a breath. "H