Page 2 of Captured Memories
Mr. Heart
Liv’s blood turned cold, and she nearly dropped the letter.
Tessa strode over to her and plucked the paper from her hands. “What’s the card say?” she asked, concern sharpening her voice. After scanning the invite, she let out a low whistle. “You don’t think it’s him, do you?”
Cold settled over Liv like a blanket of snow, and despite her hand resting on the handle of her apartment door, she couldn’t urge herself to make the knob turn. Her throat dried at the fear of going face to face with the guy who’d turned her life upside down. Even though she’d sliced off contact since that day, the man continued to reappear in the shadows slinking down her hall, in the eyes of the guys who stared at her for too long on the streets, and in the way those reminders of the past froze her on the spot.
“This is your chance, Liv,” Tessa said, turning the knob for her as she made her way into Liv’s apartment. “For some form of justice.”
Tessa’s movement jarred her own, and the moment she stepped into the embrace of her apartment, greeted by the hiss of the jasmine air freshener and the meow of Percival the Bold, her nerves calmed. Two shake-ups in one day and she was about ready to slump into her couch, burrow under a down comforter, and crash out. Liv sucked in a deep breath, making her way across the hardwood to the pop open the toothpaste-white cabinets in her kitchen.
She turned to face Tessa with two glasses in hand. “What sort of plan do you have in mind?” Anger simmered inside her, a longstanding, complicated, and endless rage that never quite retreated.
Tessa unscrewed a bottle of Tullamore Dew and poured the honey liquid into the glasses, the cedar and sharp scent infusing the air. Her mouth formed a grim line, and her brows tugged together with the fierce expression on her face.
“If this creep is reappearing to torment you, we’ve got to get him behind bars. If you show for this bullshit date, I’ll follow and find a way to book him on harassment charges,” Tessa proclaimed, taking a swig from her glass a moment later.
Her friend’s enthusiasm should have sparked her to life, but the raging tundra inside her permeated too deep at this point for any hope of retribution. She swallowed the whisky, fabricating the warmth that should have coiled in her stomach, one she missed. The invitation glared at her like a threat, and she sneered back.
She lifted her glass in Tessa’s direction, leaning against her kitchen counter. Even though fear gripped her in a vice, her friend was talking some sense and offering a chance to maybe sleep in peace for once. She’d take any shot at normalcy again, even if she had to face her demons.
“Let’s do this.”