Chapter 40 Here For You

• The drive back home was an eerie silence. The hum of the tires on the road was the only sound, a steady rhythm that seemed to match the pulse in Bethany’s chest. Jason kept his hands firm on the wheel, his eyes never straying from the road, but there was something in the air that felt too thick—too heavy.
• Bethany stared out the window, watching the world blur past in the dark. Her thoughts swirled, a storm that wouldn’t settle. Every scene from the night replayed in her mind—the confrontation with Greg, his fury, the way he still believed he could control her. She tried to push it all away, but it clung to her, a weight she couldn’t shake.
• Her fingers gripped her knee, her knuckles white, as the tears came. Slowly at first, a trickle down her cheek, but then they came faster, unchecked, her breath hitching in her throat. She didn’t want to let him see, didn’t want to break down in front of him, but the quiet, the overwhelming stillness of the night, made it impossible to hold it in anymore.