My bag falls to the floor. I shake my head and cover my mouth with my hands in disbelief. He takes two steps over to me, wrapping his arms around my shoulders. My whole body starts to shake.

“Don’t cry,” he says, kissing my hair. “Don’t cry, my sweet girl.”

“What…are…you…doing here?” I mumble into his shirt.

I hold him as close as possible.

When he tries to pull away, I refuse to let him go.

“Don’t go,” I whisper.

“I’m not going anywhere for a long time,” Nicholas says.

His arms hold me close against his chest as my hands run up and down his back feeling every part of him just to make sure that he’s real.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, looking up at him.

When he presses his lips onto mine, my mouth opens and the world outside of us begins to spin. His body is hot to the touch, a perfect complement to my own cold one. He turns my head slightly to the side and kisses me harder and more passionately.

“What are you doing here?” I ask him again, through our kiss. “I went to see you today and you weren’t there.”

“You did? Oh, I'm so sorry.”

“The guard didn’t tell me anything and I thought that you got hurt again,” I say. I glance up at him and suddenly see a mischievous wink. My heart skips a beat.

“What happened? How did you get out?”

I know what he’s going to say before he says it. The guard didn’t tell me anything because they wanted to know if I already knew.

But how?

How did he escape?

And why is he here? This is the first place they’re going to look for him.

29

Olive

When I find out…

“Okay, Olive,” Nicholas says, steadying my face with his hands. I feel my eyes flickering and wildly staring at his. In return, his gaze is stoic, almost distant.

“Olive, I didn’t run away,” he says. His words slowly seep in.

“What happened?”

“I was released. There was a big investigation by the state of the district attorney’s office for corruption and bribery. He’s still in the process of stepping down since the state is trying to save face, but he’s no longer working there. When Nancy reached out to the new DA and they reviewed the case against me and compared the DNA evidence they had to Owen’s they found a match to both crime scenes. Nancy said that they didn’t want to hold me after that.”

My feet seem to crumble under me and I melt onto the floor. Nicholas kneels down to me, taking me into his arms.

“Everything is okay, Olive. I’m here with you. I’m free.”

I nuzzle my head into his shoulder still unable to believe that this is real.