I remembered the day Liam Hayes proposed, his eyes full of sincerity, promising to love me more than life itself. Three years later, that world collapsed around me in a damp, abandoned warehouse.
"Choose, Liam. Your wife or your childhood sweetheart," the man with the gun said, his voice flat and bored. Liam stood, caught between me, tied to a chair, and a weeping Olivia White.
I watched silently as he untied Olivia, his whispered "I'm sorry" a physical blow. He walked her out, his back to me, leaving me bound. Just as tears broke through my carefully maintained calm, the kidnapper cut my ropes, telling me he wasn't a murderer, just a man who believed in consequences. He looked me in the eye. "For what it's worth, he's an idiot."