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her hand away.
    “Oh, I’m finally in my right mind. I came back to talk things through. Give it one more chance, at least for the baby’s sake, but I had it right the first time. I’m done.”
    He strode to the door, not looking back. The last she heard of him was the slamming door. Again. A tired déjà vu of earlier tonight. Of so many slammed doors and violent departures over the course of her life.
    She sat for a moment just as he’d left her, blinking in the dim light and rubbing at arms chilled from the air conditioning. Chilled from the finality of his parting words. And then it hit her. Cam had been drinking. He was angry. He was driving away. She had to stop him.
    She scrambled out of the bed, not even bothering to throw on shoes. She snatched her keys and her purse and dashed toward her Camry, realizing it was raining only when she slid on the wet cobblestones.
    She pulled out onto the road, training her eyes on the taillights of the Land Rover ahead of her. She struggled to remain calm. Cam was still within sight. Irrational as it was, she felt that as long as she kept him within sight, she could protect him. She could at least be there if a cop stopped him. She rubbed her stomach and pressed the accelerator as much as she dared, needing to get a little closer.
    “Hold on, little one.”
    The rain came down harder now, faster than her decrepit wipers could keep pace. She squinted through the sheets of rain pummeling her windshield before finally turning her bright lights on. She grabbed her phone, glancing down to select Cam’s contact. The phone rang several times before finally rolling into voice mail.
    She tossed her phone back into her purse, setting a grate over the fear and panic that burned in her belly and throat.
    “Cameron Mitchell, when this is all over, I’m gonna kill you.”
    Cam veered sharply to the left, avoiding something in the road. Kerris pulled her steering wheel to avoid it, too, but she immediately felt her tires spinning free of the road; she could feel the unresponsive steering wheel sliding through her hands as she spun once and then again and then again and then again. There was no last thought when she cannoned toward the tree with its menacing limbs. All thoughts were drowned out by the scream that erupted from her throat, filling the car before it dissolved into the deathly silence that remained.

Chapter Four
    K erris is in the hospital!”
    Meredith rubbed her eyes, struggling to drag herself from the warmth of her down comforter and a deep sleep.
    “Cam?” She ran her hands through her tuft of spiky hair, her voice sleep-slurred. “Is that you?”
    “Yes. Yes.” His words popped out between panicked breaths. “Did you hear me? Kerris is in the hospital. It’s all my fault, Mer. Oh, God!”
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Meredith sat up, reaching beside the bed to snap on the lamp. “What are you saying?”
    “She’s in the hospital. Rivermont General.”
    “What happened?” Fear squeezed the muscles of her throat, barely letting the words out.
    “She was…she was coming after me.” Cam’s voice broke over the last word.
    “I don’t understand.” Meredith frowned and threw the covers back. She rushed toward her closet, grabbing the first pair of jeans she reached, pulling them on under her nightshirt and not even bothering with a bra.
    “We had a—” Cam stopped, pausing to draw a shallow, anxious breath. “We had a fight, and I had been drinking. I drove out, and she came after me.”
    Meredith paused in pulling on her Uggs, longing to dive through the phone and squish the life from Cam.
    “You sorry piece of shit.” Meredith snatched up her bag and keys, bolting from the apartment.
    “I know.” Cam groaned, his voice holding all the torture she hoped he was feeling. “I know. Just…just come.”
    “Oh, don’t you worry.” She slammed her car door, looking over her shoulder to zip out of the parking lot. “I’m on my way.”
    Twenty minutes