“I warned him that if he continued a relationship with you, I would be forced to fire him.”

“You what?”

“Carrying on a relationship with him could get in the way of—”

“You know he’s the only one that can keep me safe! You’re willing to risk my life to prove a point?”

“Of course not! Your father insisted that Jared stay away from you, Nina. You’re just going to have to forget him!”

“Mother, I love him!”

Cynthia’s eyes widened at my words. After a short pause, she shook her head dismissively. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

I could barely form a whisper. “Look at me.” I let my shoulders hang in defeat. “Does this look like just a crush to you? I’m in love with him.”

“Then stop. This is not what your father wanted for you. Did Jared tell you that? That he was forbidden to get involved with you? I won’t help you go against your father’s wishes.”

“That had nothing to do with me or with Jared, Mother! Daddy didn’t want me to know the truth about him!”

“Nina,” she breathed, “you don’t believe that.”

I could see my efforts were in vain; Cynthia wouldn’t help me. I escaped her apathetic eyes and fled to my Beemer. The rain poured relentlessly, and I was soaked by the time I entered the car. I sped down the street, the tires creating a wake behind them.

The farther I drove, the less I wanted to return to my dorm. Walking into Andrews would be admitting defeat. Worse, something deep inside of me knew that the second I stepped inside my room, I would begin a life without Jared.

When the street lights began to flicker, the rain tapped against my windshield in tiny crystals. Some of the roads had been blocked off by the flooding, and I was soon corralled onto a dead end road. Through the gush of windblown rain, a bridge came into view just ahead of my car, arching high into the night sky.

I turned off my car and sat, mulling over the last week. My feeble attempt to gain any control over the situation had ended dismally. I hadn’t truly considered giving up until that very moment.

I pulled my hat and gloves off and threw them on the seat beside me, deciding that the only option I truly had was to leave. But Jared would follow, he would have to, and I would take him away from his sister, his brother, and Lillian. I gripped the steering wheel as the realization sunk in; I was trapped.