POV: Tristan Mariano
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She came with me after the accident and Today it has been 8 days since she stayed here. She did not have the courage to stay with Josh even after knowing everything. But Josh, he did not even know why she was staying with me. But she did not tell me either, she just said that she does not want go near that man... that's it, and I did not ask her any further question, I did as she said...I always do...I Always Will...
The house was quieter than usual.
Suzzy hadn't spoken a word since morning. She'd spent most of her day curled on the living room couch with a blanket pulled up to her chin and her gaze fixed out the window—watching the rain drizzle down the glass like it held the answers she couldn't ask for out loud.
She hadn't eaten much either. Just a few sips of soup and half a piece of dry toast.
I stood in the kitchen doorway, my eyes on her while my hand gripped the mug of coffee I wasn't really drinking. My heart clenched watching her shrink further into herself every day after the accident. But I knew grief worked like that—quietly, slowly, and then all at once.
A part of me wanted to go sit beside her, wrap her in a blanket of comfort and tell her everything would be okay.
But I couldn't lie. Not to her. Not about this. Because everything was not okay.Not when the man she trusted tried to destroy her. Not when I was still pretending I didn't know her from years ago.
Not when I was silently falling in love with her all over again.
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I stepped into the room and sat across from her, waiting.
Her eyes flickered to me for a second before she looked away. Her fingers clenched the throw blanket tighter.
I took a deep breath.
"Suzzy…" My voice was softer than I intended. "If there's something you want to say, you can. I'm not going anywhere."
Her eyes were rimmed red when she finally looked at me. And yet, behind that pain, I saw something else—something bitter and sharp.
She sat up slowly.
"I saw him." Her voice cracked like thin ice breaking under pressure. "With her. In our bedroom."
My body stiffened.She hadn't told me this part before.I leaned forward. "You mean… Josh?"
She nodded once. "The day before the accident. I came home early. He didn't expect me to."
Her hands trembled now. "When I confronted him Yesterday, He wasn't even ashamed. Just shocked. Like I had done something wrong walking in on him."
I inhaled sharply, trying to calm the storm building inside me.
This—this right here—was why I couldn't afford to lose focus on the investigation. Because the man who once swore to protect her had betrayed her... and then tried to eliminate her.
And she still didn't know that last part.Not yet.
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I let her speak. She needed to. I'd waited for this.
"I didn't say anything at first," she continued, her voice hollow. "I just… stood there. Watching them scramble. She ran out, Still they didn't notice me, Like I didn't even existed.After i confronted him Yesterday, He kept telling me it wasn't what it looked like. That I was imagining things. That I was too emotional lately."
"That's what they do," I muttered. "Make you doubt your own reality."
Her lips curved in a broken, bitter smile. "I almost did. But something in me cracked that day. I didn't tell him I was leaving. I didn't tell him anything. Just picked up my bag, got in the car... and then the next thing I know, I'm waking up in a hospital."
I froze.
That was the timeline.
She saw him cheat. She left. And then, hours later… the accident.
Except it wasn't an accident as it seemed.I gripped the edge of the chair, my knuckles white.Now wasn't the time to tell her what I'd been digging up behind her back.
That Josh had paid off a mechanic three days before the crash. That Suzanne's brake line had been cut. That the man who claimed to love her didn't just betray her body—he tried to shatter her existence entirely.
He didn't know she had seen him. He didn't know she was pregnant. And he definitely didn't know that someone was quietly putting the pieces together to destroy him.
But I knew.And I wouldn't let Suzanne carry this pain alone forever.
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Later that night, after she fell asleep on the couch, I returned to my office and opened the hidden file drawer where I kept everything. Mechanic records. Surveillance footage. A printed message from an unknown source.
And then... the little wooden trinket. The one I'd carved for her when we were kids. The one I kept with me every day since.
She didn't remember. Not yet.But I did.
I remembered the girl who gave me half her umbrella during a storm. Who offered her sandwich to a hungry, bruised stranger. Who'd promised—without knowing what it meant—that she'd always find me again.
"I found you, Suzzy," I whispered to the silent room. "And this time, I'm not letting you go."
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[End of Chapter 5]
To be continued...