Page 86 of Safe and Sound

His eyes widened. “Fuck, Ava, you don’t piss off a man in the mafia. Do you think he’ll come after you?”

I shook my head. “No. He’s not like that.”

“But he could perceive you as a threat. I mean, you could go to the police.”

“He knows I wouldn’t.”

Nick stared at me in disbelief. “How are you so calm?”

“Because I’m screaming inside my head.”

“You loved him, didn’t you?”

A lone tear streaked down my cheek. “Yeah, I did.”

“What happens now?”

“I have no fucking idea,” I replied with a mirthless laugh.

“For starters, we’re going to get the hell out of Boston.”

“That sounds good.”

“Then you’re going to come stay with me for a few days, or I’m staying at your place.”

With a shake of my head, I protested, “Dare respects me enough not to come after me, so you don’t have to do that.”

“I’m not doing it because of him.” He gave me a sad smile. “You’re going to need me.”

And he was right. I’d just had my already wounded heart broken again. “I appreciate that.”

“What’s family for, right?”

“Apparently for me, it’s to constantly rescue me from my bad decisions.”

“Dare wasn’t a red flag that you didn’t see. He was the perfect man.”

“Until he wasn’t.”

With a nod, Nick rose off of the bed. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

In that moment, I was so grateful for the family I had and the life they led.

Chapter Twenty-One: Ava

Two Weeks Later

As I bolted myself into the employee bathroom at Taverna by the Sea, I shook so violently I could barely hang on to the cardboard boxes in my hands. Three brands of pregnancy tests rattled around as I tried keeping myself from screaming.

I was a week late for my period.

For some women, that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But from the time I first got mine until today, you could haveset a clock by them. I was never early or never late. I had the Goldilocks of periods that were just right on time.

There was only one time I’d had a pregnancy scare, and that was back in college. After a week of chewing my nails down to the quick, my period had finally come. I’d celebrated by getting absolutely plastered and making an appointment for an IUD. Considering it was finals week and I was waiting to hear about my senior internship, I chalked it up to stress making me late.

It was the only time in seventeen years that I had been late. And that trusty college IUD had been replaced over the years with the birth control shot.

The one I stopped taking after Preston left me.

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