I was half-way down the driveway when I heard Jalen yelling my name. I frantically brushed at my cheeks, not wanting him to see me cry and take it the wrong way. I ducked my head and kept going, pretending that I didn’t hear him begging me to stop.

Then his hand latched onto my arm, and he spun me around. His expression was stricken, and it cut me to the bone, adding to the pain already growing in my chest.

“I didn’t cheat on you, Rona. I swear it.” He reached up to push my hair out of my eyes. “I love you, and I have my faults, but I’d never cheat on you.”

“I know.” I leaned into the hand he put on my cheek. “And I’m not angry at you. I still trust you, and I love you.”

A shadow crossed his face. “But?”

I reluctantly took a step back. “But you can’t abandon your child.”

“I can’t,” he agreed. His hands opened and closed like he wanted to reach for me again but kept stopping himself.

“That makes me love you even more.” My voice quavered, and I took a slow breath. “But even though it doesn’t change how I feel, it changes things between us.”

“It doesn’t have to,” he said. “Please, Rona.”

I gave him the best smile I could, but I knew it wasn’t even close to enough. “Having a baby changes things. From a practical standpoint, if nothing else. You need to be there for Elise. The two of you have to figure out how this changes things between you. How you’ll parent. Where you’ll live. It’s a lot.”

“I don’t want to lose you.”

I swallowed hard, fighting back a fresh wave of tears. “I’m not breaking up with you, not unless it’s what you want, but you need time and space to decide how your life will look with this new addition to it. And I need time and space to process it too.”

“Rona.” He took a step toward me, and I held up a hand. “It’s not safe for you to be alone. You should stay.”

A shiver ran up my spine as I remembered that my father had escaped. I was here under Jalen’s protection, or should be.

But I needed to go.

I shook my head. “I’ll go straight home and lock up,” I promised. “You need to go back inside. When we’re both ready, we’ll talk.” I turned away and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. I’d call for a cab before I reached his gate, then wait inside the safety of those bars until it arrived. It would be okay. Right now, it was more important to get away.

He called after me again, but I didn’t slow this time, and he didn’t chase me. As much as a part of me wished he had, I knew this was for the best. We might be able to get through it, after all. This wasn’t broken trust or loss of love. It’d have its own set of problems, but nothing the two of us couldn’t manage. We’d gotten through worse.

These were all the things I told myself over and over as I trudged through the snow to the gate. I didn’t know how much time passed before I heard an approaching car, but I was glad for it. I’d used a new app to call for a ride, and they’d gotten here quicker than I’d expected. I ran through the side gate and waited for it to pull up next to me.

When it stopped, I frowned and pulled out my phone to double check my memory. The app had said my car would be a tan Subaru. I didn’t know a lot about cars, but this definitely wasn’t a Subaru. And it wasn’t tan. It was an SUV, and it was dark blue, almost black.

Alarm bells started going off in my head, but not fast enough. A man jumped out of the passenger’s side seat and grabbed me, pinning my arms at my sides. My phone fell on the ground, and he kicked it away. I struggled, putting everything I had into trying to break free.

Then his hand was on my face, a cloth covering my mouth and nose. The sickly-sweet smell I knew to be chloroform invaded my senses, and I tried to scream.

One beat.

Two beats.

My heart echoed in my ears, slowing from its previous frantic pace. My limbs felt heavy, and my eyes closed.

One beat.

Two beats.

Everything went dark and my thoughts faded.

Gone.