“Jay, please,” I begged this time, tugging on the door again.
“I love you,” he said one last time. “And I know you don’t feel the same right now. But I fell in love with you, Hope. Your father had nothing to do with that.”
“Goodbye, Jay,” I said, and it took every ounce of willpower I had to slide into the driver’s seat and force the door closed.
He stepped back, finally letting me leave. And that’s when I saw tears shimmering in his dark navy eyes.
I didn’t allow myself to look at him for long. To keep myself together, I faced forward and didn’t look back, barely containing my sobs until I reached the main road, where I finally let myself break apart.
THREE MONTHS LATER
CHAPTER 54
Thick snowflakes fell from a sky full of stars, blanketing the Colorado Four Seasons Resort in a serene layer of white. I sank deeper into the steaming hot tub, relishing the sting of icy air on my face and the contrast of warm water enveloping the rest of my body. The five-star hotel, tucked among pine-covered mountains, offered breathtaking views, and for a moment, I was content to simply watch the snow fall from the hot tub on my balcony without thinking about anything.
It had been three months since the incident with my father at Jay’s house. I’d met Emily in Utah and we’d been traveling from state to state together ever since. Most of the time, it was national parks, camping beside mountain lakes, or hiking to waterfalls. But this past week, we’d been in Colorado. Emily’s father was friends with the CEO of a high-profile hotel chain, and occasionally, he pulled strings that got us access to places like this, no cost, no questions asked.
I was enjoying the carefree life Emily had perfected, butI had to admit I missed staying in one place. As much as I tried to be spontaneous and adventurous, I couldn’t help yearning for somewhere to call home—a place where I could curl up and write without wondering where I’d be sleeping next week.
The shrill ring of my phone cut through the quiet.
Reluctantly, I climbed out of the hot tub, the cold biting into my wet skin as I grabbed my robe and wrapped it tightly around me. I rushed to answer before the call ended, not bothering to check the number.
“Hello?” I said, my breath coming out in white puffs in the frigid air.
“Hi, is this Hope?” a woman asked.
“Yes. Who is this?” Suspicion crept into my voice. I didn’t recognize her voice at all.
“My name is Brittany Tate. I worked for Dr. Pike years ago. I was told that you had an encounter with him that sounds similar to mine.”
I froze.
My breath caught in my chest. I had not been expecting that.
I hadn’t thought Jay would continue searching for anyone with connections to Conrad after I left.
I didn’t realize how long I’d been silent until Brittany spoke again.
“Could we talk?”
“So Jay found this girl?” Emily said. “And she just called you?”
We sat in the hotel’s coffee shop, the low hum of conversation fading into background noise. My fingerswere wrapped around my mug a little too tightly, my knuckles turning white. I’d barely taken two sips.
“Jay gave her my number,” I said. “He told her we weren’t on good terms, but that she could try anyway.”
I was still trying to process everything Brittany had told me. She said she and Jay had worked together years ago, back when he’d just graduated from dental school and had taken a job at a dental office in El Cajon. It was a corporate practice with multiple doctors and hygienists. They’d worked together there for a few months. But not long later, Dr. Jay moved to Big Bear to start his own practice. And then Brittany received a better job offer at an office called West Harbor Dental. Dr. Pike’s office. It was where he’d worked before moving over to work with my dad. She told me how Dr. Pike had hit her on the arm during an altercation and brushed it off as an accident. No one believed her when she tried to bring it to light.
“After everything that happened,” Emily said slowly, “Jay still went looking?”
I could tell Emily wanted to say more about how Jay was still helping me after all this time, but my mind wasn’t on Jay.
My thoughts were stuck on Dr. Pike and how he really had hurt more people than me. It made me angry. So incredibly angry that for a moment, my contempt toward Jay was overshadowed.
“She said Pike followed her too,” I said, my jaw clenching. “After the incident, he threatened to hurt her if she told anyone. She caught him outside her house more than once.”
Emily’s eyes widened. “What a psychopath. Hope, I don’t want you getting hurt by diving back into all of this.”
