Chapter 12

Nova

I hurried toward the women’s restroom, hoping to slip away before Henry could recognize me.

But he had noticed me despite having spent six years apart. He followed me, reaching me before I could disappear, and cornered me in the hallway leading to the restroom.

“Nova,” Henry said, stepping into my way. “It’s been a while.”

My throat bobbed. I hadn’t seen Henry in six years, but he still looked so much like the young jock I had once fallen for—just bigger and angrier now.

At nineteen, I was the awkward nerd in college that no one liked. I wore glasses, still had braces even at that age, and cared more about sticking my nose in books than going to parties or participating in sports.

Henry, meanwhile, was the golden boy. He was the captain of the rugby team, six-foot-two and a hundred and eighty pounds of pure muscle. With his blond crew cut hair, rugged good looks, and charming personality, every girl wanted him.

Despite my looks, I was no different than the other girls. I became smitten with Henry at first sight and had crushed on him for months before I finally worked up the nerve to attend a frat party and ask him out.

Surprisingly, he had said yes. Henry seemed to see through my nerdy, quiet nature and awkward looks and had dated me for two years.

We had eloped at twenty-one—just a simple court ceremony with no fanfare—and just one year later, I had given birth to our daughter.

I was happy. I thought I had gotten my happily ever after, that despite everything the other kids always teased me for growing up, I had found a man who truly loved me.

But then I had learned he had cheated on me. Not just once, but multiple times. He had apparently been doing it throughout most of our relationship, and I had been so blind despite it being right under my nose.

All those nights being told he had to work late, the random “work trips” out of town, going out to the bar with his friends and coming home at three in the morning with glitter on his shirt…

I had been so blinded by naive love that I had never realized what was really going on.

However, I wasn’t a fool, and I had a baby to think about. So I had divorced him as soon as I found out where he really was while I was enduring a long and painful labor—not having car troubles like he claimed, but in bed with another woman.

I had only found out because one of the hospital nurses who tended to me after my daughter was born was the woman he’d been sleeping with most recently.

The woman hadn’t realized he was married and, taking pity on me, had told me right away while I held my baby in my arms.

“You look different,” Henry pointed out, looking me over with obvious want in his eyes. His voice snapped me out of my memories.

I lifted my chin. I had gotten my braces off and switched to contact lenses long before our marriage, but when I had left Henry, I had had a postpartum body, adult acne caused by pregnancy hormones, and didn’t really know how to dress myself because of my low self-esteem.

In the six years we had been apart, despite my financial struggles, I had found my confidence. I’d fixed my skin, swapped the bad attempts at straightening my hair for my natural waves, and had started dressing in more mature and feminine styles.

But I had done that for myself. Not for any man.

“No thanks to you,” I hissed. “Now move, please. I need to use the restroom.”

“No you don’t. You’re just trying to run away, just like you did six years ago.” Henry moved into my way again when I tried to sidestep around him, frustrating me. “I saw you with your new lover out there. Tell me, does our daughter call him ‘Daddy’ or is he just a stranger?”

I didn’t reply right away. I realized that Henry thought Aria was his daughter.

He took my silence as confirmation. Taking a step forward, he reached out to brush a strand of hair out of my eyes.

“Don’t touch me.” I swatted his hand away from my face, disgusted.

“I still have visitation rights, you know,” Henry growled, angry now. “You just disappeared without warning all those years ago, moved cities and changed your number. I deserve to see my daughter, at least. She looks so much like you…”

I rolled my eyes. “I did all of that because you frightened me after the divorce.”

I suppressed a shudder at the memory—this muscular brute of a man screaming and pounding on the bedroom door, making my infant daughter cry, while I hurriedly packed my things. The police had had to restrain him while I left, and he had still tried to follow me.

That was when I fled to Wintercrest with Susie and the girls. The police helped me change cities, change my last name, change my number, and hide my information.

I didn’t have a husband, but I had my sister, who was also a struggling single mother, and that was all that mattered. We’d started fresh together. We’d healed.

And now he was back. I wasn’t sure if Henry had intentionally found me here or if it was just a horrible coincidence. Either way, I was terrified.

“I only got so mad because I couldn’t bear to lose you,” Henry said.

I scoffed. “If you felt that way, then you wouldn’t have cheated on me to begin with. But it’s been six years, Henry. I’ve moved on. So should you.”

With that, I tried to shove past him so I could leave. But I couldn’t get far—he snarled and grabbed my wrist so hard it was certain to leave a bruise, wrenching me back toward him.

“No. I won’t let you go,” he said, pressing me against the wall. His breath smelled like vodka as he leaned closer. “I still love you, Nova. I was young and stupid. But I’ve realized my mistakes. Come home.”

“No,” I whispered, jutting out my chin, refusing to let him see how his tight grip was hurting me. “You cheated because you thought you could do better. Now, you only want me back because you see that I’m the one who’s doing better than you.”

Her words seemed to trigger Henry. Without warning, he pulled me into his arms and kissed me with such force it felt like my lips had been stung by a thousand bees.

I wriggled against his grip, trying to break the kiss, but it was no use. Henry had nearly a hundred pounds on me—and he had gotten even more muscular over the years—and my strength was no match for him.

He just pulled me closer, so tight it squeezed the air from my lungs, and kissed me harder.

I couldn’t breathe. My lungs couldn’t expand in his grip. My vision began to darken and fade around the edges, my hands and feet scrabbling uselessly…

Suddenly, Henry was thrown back so hard he slammed against the wall and slumped to the floor. I gasped, stumbling back and catching my breath.

Alpha Dominic calmly adjusted his shirtsleeves.

“Are you alright, Nova?”