CHAPTER 49
The taillights disappearedbeyond the gate, and Naomi slowly blew out her breath.
She stared at the place where Gio’s car had been.
Something moved at the edge of her mind. A flicker. Like a word on the tip of her tongue that kept slipping away before she could catch it.
At once, she could hear Gio’s voice again. She was transported back to his office. She remembered a tense conversation.
But she didn’t know what it was about. She only had a feeling in her gut.
Then after that, there was nothing. The memory dissolved before it took shape, leaving only a faint unease in its wake.
She pressed her fingers to her temple.
“Hey.” Micah’s voice was quiet. “Where’d you go?”
“I don’t know.” She dropped her hand. “Something almost . . . I don’t know. It’s probably nothing. It happens sometimes. A feeling like I’m about to remember something and then it’s just . . . gone.”
Micah was quiet before asking, “Have you ever thought about calling someone in New York? Someone who knew you before.A friend or colleague. Or maybe the detective who handled your case. Maybe they know something that could help you.”
Naomi looked at him and shook her head. “No, I just thought I should put that part of my life behind me.”
“Sometimes talking to someone who was there helps fill in the gaps,” he told her.
She considered his words. She’d been so focused on moving forward that she’d never considered deliberately reaching back. Not to relive the trauma, but to understand it.
“Maybe I should,” she said.
Micah nodded and didn’t press further.
Gio’s words came back to her. Hiding. Running. Attaching herself to someone else’s life because her own had fallen apart.
She’d flinched when he said it. Had wondered if he was right.
But standing here now, in the quiet of the mountain night, she knew he wasn’t.
She hadn’t run to Refuge Cove. She’d been led here. By instinct, by necessity, by something she still didn’t fully understand. And what she’d built in the months since wasn’t a substitute for a real life.
Itwasa real life.
This shelter mattered. The women who came here mattered. The work was hard and meaningful andhers.
That wasn’t running away.
That was healing.
The realization grounded her.
She was exactly where she was supposed to be.
The thought had barely finished forming when a thin cry sounded on the baby monitor.
Grace.
Naomi already moved toward the door.
Micah hadn’t meant to follow Naomi inside.
