Chapter 78

SARAH

As I lay in the tub, the heat of the water trying to coax the tension out of my body, my mind kept circling back to that text. Marcel. Just when I thought I could finally breathe, he had to resurface and bring all the chaos back with him.

What did he mean by that message? “I’ll be back for you, Sarah. I swear it.” The words echoed in my mind, sending a shiver down my spine despite the warmth that surrounded me. Was it a threat? A warning? I couldn’t tell. But what I did know was that Marcel was a man who rarely made empty promises.

I stared at the ceiling, my thoughts spinning in circles. Why now? Why, when I was finally starting to feel some semblance of normalcy in my life, did he have to crawl out of whatever dark corner he’d been hiding in and try to drag me back into his twisted world? For once, I was beginning to feel like things were falling into place, like maybe—just maybe—I could find some peace. But that hope was quickly slipping through my fingers, replaced by the fa