Page 54 of Seeking Happily Ever After

Fall in love.

Shit.

Yes.Love. It was the last thing she’d wanted to happen and the exact opposite of what wassupposedto happen. No expectations, right?

So much for that.

She’d fallen hard.Reallyhard.

And not just for him.

It was too much. She needed to stop thinking. She needed to numb it. Shut it off. She needed—

Alcohol.

There was a bottle of Prosecco in the cabin from when Nick had surprised her the day of the caseworker visit. With everything that had happened, she’d forgotten all about it. She meant to take it back to the house for them to drink there, but she hadn’t gotten around to it.

Perfect.

Slowly, Charlotte pulled herself up from the porch and without bothering to dust herself off, dug the keys out of her pocket.

But the door to the cabin was unlocked. She held her hand on the doorknob for a moment before turning it.Had she left it unlocked the last time she was there?

It had been a few days since she’d been up to the cabin and she couldn’t remember locking the door, but she always did.Maybe Travis had opened it? For the furniture delivery?

Yes.The furniture she’d ordered was supposed to be delivered.

Charlotte shook her head at her own forgetfulness. If she wasn’t careful, she’d lose this job and then she’d really have nothing left. Maybe Nick had turned out to be…well, at least she had her career. That’s what she’d do. Focus on her career. All in.Maybe then she could—

Two steps into the cabin, Charlotte froze.

Someone had been there.

And not to deliver furniture.

The small space was still empty. Almost exactly how she’d left it the last time she’d been there.Almost.

There were dark, muddy footprints on the pine floorboards.

She sucked in a breath and turned slowly.

The bottle of bubbly she’d left on the cupboard had been opened. A paper cup sat next to it. Splashes of wine dotted the countertop.

This is wrong.

She tried not to jump to conclusions, but her instincts knew better. Icy fear ran through her veins and up her spine.

Run,a voice deep inside her screamed at her.

She needed to get out of there. Quickly.

Charlotte darted for the only exit, but it was too late. A man stepped through the door and closed it behind him.

Billy.

Amelia had stopped crying. Finally.

It had taken Nick over twenty minutes to calm her down after Charlotte left. She was finally bouncing in her play saucer and giggling at the various toys he’d put in place to distract her. Poor kid was no doubt picking up on his tension as well as the fact that a strange woman had been holding her. But she wasn’t a stranger; she was hermother.Nick had to continually remind himself of that.

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