MIA
I should never have come.
I stood in the shadows, heart beating out of my chest, my breath barely making it past the lump in my throat. My fingers curled around the fabric of my coat, trying to ground myself, trying to push away the foolish, aching hope that had taken root the moment I saw him.
Derek.
Even from a distance, his presence was undeniable—tall, commanding, impossibly familiar. He had always been in an anchor in the storm of my life, the force that pulled me in when I felt as though I might break free.
And now, here I was, hidden among the mourners at my own funeral, waiting for something I couldn’t even name.
For a second—for one fleeting second—I thought maybe, just maybe, I had meant something to him.
Then she appeared.
Cassandra.
She moved in behind him w
