Rosie couldn’t stop shaking as she crept down the street, away from the cop that hadn’t given her a ticket. She didn’t know what to make of the incident. He’d been kind, which was not something she’d been expecting. And he’d said her name like…like he cared about her.

Part of her wondered if she knew him, but she never had the guts to look at him long enough to figure it out. She hadn’t even read his nameplate.

She was too ashamed of everything she’d become to let herself be recognized by someone from high school.

Shit! Coming back was a huge mistake.

The moment she’d entered Aspen Falls, her stomach had knotted, but driving past the high school had been her undoing. Her fall from grace had been hard, and the landing was breaking her.

Damien had offered her to another man.

She shuddered, her hellish day playing out in her head like some sick movie reel. She was still recovering from the shock of what she’d discovered that morning, but to then have him do that to her was the final blow.

The guy she lived with thought of her as nothing more than a cheap whore.

So what did everybody else think of her?

She was too scared to really consider it.

Biting her lips together, she sniffed at her tears and ambled toward Lulu’s Coffee Shop.

“Lulu,” she whispered, her mind jumping back to that sweet cop.

Surely the coffee shop was owned by Louanne—the one and only cool adult present in her teenage life.

Had that cop somehow known that?

She nibbled her lip as she thought about him. She’d been speeding way over the limit. He could’ve ticketed her without a second thought, but instead he’d checked if she was okay. Told her he’d rather give her a jacket.

He’d cared about her well-being.

For the briefest of moments, sitting in the car with that cop standing next to her door, his concern for her palpable, she’d considered telling him everything. Just letting it all out. But then the full force of what she’d done slammed into her. The events of that morning could be considered aiding and abetting. She’d lied to the detective who showed up on her doorstep. She’d been trying to save her boyfriend, not realizing that only two hours later he’d offer her up as a way to clear his debt.

An icy chill swept through her.

She hadn’t had the guts to tell Damien what had happened before he got home. The guy had been freaking out, and she couldn’t predict how he’d react. She was staggered by how little she knew him.

She should’ve split as soon as that detective left. Disappeared without a trace. But maybe a part of her still hoped that Damien had accidentally gotten himself mixed up in something illegal.

“Accidentally,” Rosie scoffed. “You’re an idiot!”

A stupid, blind idiot.

Maybe that was another reason why she couldn’t tell that nice police officer why her day had been so hellish.

How did she admit to an upstanding citizen of the law that she’d jumped into bed with a scumbag like Damien? She’d let herself be blinded by his fake charm and sexy looks.

She was a shallow piece of work.

She always had been.

Slashing at her tears, she thumped the wheel as her lips bunched with self-loathing.

It felt like rock bottom. She’d been sliding from the top ever since she left Aspen Falls, and now she was stuck to the scum at the bottom of the pond. She’d never felt so vile or so alone.

“Louanne,” she whispered again.

Would she take her in? Rosie didn’t deserve it.

But it was Louanne—the woman she wished had been her mother…or grandmother. The only one who really saw her or understood how hard it was being part of the Sweet family.

Guilt slashed her insides at the idea of turning up after years of radio silence only to ask for help.

“You don’t deserve it,” she muttered.

But where else could she go?

She had no money for a motel.

The gas in her car was getting low. If she hit the highway now, she’d run out and no doubt freeze to death on the side of the road. Calling her parents wasn’t an option. And Hell would literally have to freeze over before she asked Angie for help. Besides, they were all miles away. Thousands of miles away.

If she wanted to live, Louanne was her only option.

“Do you want to live, Rosie?”

A memory flashed through her brain. A guy with bony white fingers wrapped around a handgun. His long greasy hair had covered the recent black eye, but she clearly remembered the way his split lip bunched as he lifted the black weapon and pressed it against his temple.

“Don’t do it,” she’d cried from the edge of the woods.

And he’d listened.

He’d walked away that day. Because of her.

And she’d never spoken to him again.

She wondered what had become of Blaine Hartford since high school.

Had he made good choices? Had he followed her advice?

She couldn’t even remember what she’d said that day. It had been a desperate rush of words, trying to convince him not to take his life. Not to let those bullies own him that way. High school would be over soon, and he would be free of them. Something like that, anyway.

She spotted Lulu’s Coffee Shop and drove past it, her fingers drumming the wheel as she tried to decide what to do.

If Blaine could not commit suicide, then maybe she could pull over and walk her shame-faced ass into Lulu’s.

Slowing the car, she pulled to the side of the road and turned off the ignition.

The heater that had been taking the edge off stopped running and the icy outdoor air poured into the car. It immediately felt like she was sitting in a freezer.

“Hot coffee or freeze to death. Make your choice, Rosie.”

Her chin bunched as she dipped her head. She suddenly felt like the heaviest creature on Earth. Like moving would take too much energy…or courage.

Glancing at the door handle, she blinked her burning eyes.

With a shaky hand, she slowly gripped the door handle.

And made her decision.