"I've been there. I often go to gather herbs," Nevaeh replied casually.
Her words made Cassius's blood rush hot in an instant.
A strange, wild hope surged inside him.
Could she be… the girl from that night?
The thought exploded in his mind, flooding his chest with warmth, shaking the walls he had built around his heart.
He stepped forward, closing the space between them, pressing Nevaeh back against the car.
His sharp, piercing gaze locked on her trembling face.
"Three years ago, behind the mountain in Big Cow Village… did you save a man?"
Nevaeh froze. Her face drained of color.
That night.
That night three years ago rose up like a ghost in her mind, dragging her back into the darkness she could never escape.
It was the night that ruined her life, when her dream of medical school shattered, when she became a mother, when everything changed.
But that secret… that unbearable truth was something she had buried deep inside. She had never told anyone.
