Page 136 of Only Be Mine

This had to be some kind of mistake. A prank. Something stupid and cruel that would end if I played along.

“Should I?” I asked carefully. “Should I remember you?”

He moved closer.

“I thought you might,” he said. “After all, she loved me first.”

The words hit like a punch.

My pulse roared in my ears. Cate’s face flashed in my mind - her laugh, her eyes, the way she said my name when she was half asleep.

“That doesn’t make sense,” I said. “You’ve got the wrong…”

He leaned in close enough that I felt his breath against my ear.

“It makes perfect sense,” he murmured.

I jerked against the restraints, panic breaking through my careful control. “Let me go,” I said. “This isn’t funny.”

His hand settled on my shoulder.

Heavy. Claiming.

“Oh, John,” he said gently. “This was never meant to be funny.”

The grip tightened.

“It’s meant to hurt.”

The room seemed to tilt, the darkness pressing in harder as the truth began to take shape. Not fully, not yet, but enough to terrify me.

This wasn’t random.

This wasn’t about money.

This was about her.

And whoever stood behind me wasn’t going to let me walk away.

Chapter 50

Cate

Present

The door clicked shut behind me, and the house settled into its familiar stillness.

Not the quiet of rest, the quiet of waiting.

I set my purse down slowly, like any sudden movement might crack something open inside me. The counter was exactly as I’d left it, the faint ring from the soda can, the towel folded neatly beside the sink.

And my phone.

It lay where I’d abandoned it, face down.

I stared at it longer than I meant to.

Yesterday replayed in my mind in fragments I didn’t ask for. The detective’s voice, steady and apologetic. Seth’s, tight with something he hadn’t wanted to name yet. Trevor’s hand at my back, guiding me away from it all.