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I was wrong about all of it.
I’m curled up on my couch, staring out the window at the mountains in the distance and remembering the snow falling up there with them, when someone knocks on my door.
My first guess is the property manager. She’s probably wondering why I’m back early when I told her I’d be gone all month. Or she’s here about last month’s rent, which I was a little short on. I don’t want to explain either, so I stay put and pretend I’m not home.
Then there’s a second knock, and a voice.
“Nina?”
Pascal.
For a second, I think I’m hallucinating. He can’t actually be here. Can he?
I leap off the couch, not caring that my hair is in a messy bun or that I’ve been wallowing in sweatpants and an old T-shirt for two days. I race to the door and yank it open.
Standing in my narrow apartment hallway are Pascal, Zander, and Jarek. All three of them. In Denver. I pinch myself to make sure I’m not having some kind of breakdown.
“What are you guys doing here?”
Part of me was afraid I’d never see them again, even though I was the one who left.
“Wait, how did you know where I live?”
“Your address was on your résumé,” Zander says.
It’s easy to forget that I was only ever supposed to be their employee.
“Forgive us,” he continues. “We’re not trying to barge into your life, Nina. If you want us to leave, we will. But we needed to tell you something in person.”
“What is it?”
Zander takes my hand. Pascal and Jarek step up beside him, each of them touching my arm, like it matters that all three of them are touching me when he says it.
“We love you.”
The words go straight through me.
“We all love you, Nina,” Jarek says.
“And we want you to come back with us,” Pascal says. “We want to make this work.”
I want to go back with them more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I just don’t see how.
“I love you, too.” I look at each of them. “So much. But I can’t. Believe me, I wish I could. This is breaking my heart. But I don’t see how this works. There’s too much coming at us from every direction, too much we can’t control. It’s one thing to be happy together in that house, with nobody watching. But the real world is still out there, and we can’t make it go away.”
“Actually,” Zander says, “we might be able to.”
I know how much he likes being in control, but even he can’t control gossip, scandals, and everything else that comes with the four of us being together.
Then he pulls a file from his coat and hands it to me.
“What’s this?”
“The truth about Reid,” he says. “It’s a way to finally stop him. So you can live your life without that guy coming after you ever again.”
It sounds too good to be true.
I flip through the photos and documents. After a few minutes, my eyes snap back up to them.