Chapter 214
~ Nathaniel ~
I watched Hailey sink onto the couch, her knees buckling as though the weight of everything she’d been holding back had finally become too much.
Her hands clenched in the fabric of the cushion, her shoulders trembling faintly. The fire that had burned so brightly in her moments ago—the rage, the sharpness, the control—was gone.
What remained was raw.
“Hey,” I said softly, moving to sit beside her. I kept my voice low, careful not to startle her. “Don’t worry about Trice. The police have everything under control. They’ll find Marcus soon. And when they do, the truth will come out.”
She didn’t respond right away.
“But right now,” I continued, “you don’t need to think about any of that. You just need to focus on yourself. On getting better.”
Hailey’s eyes we
