Chapter 1 RETURN TO THE BLACKTHORN ESTATE

NOVA'S POV

I should have known something was off when Marcus kissed me goodbye that morning, but I was too busy trying to find my other shoe and wondering if I'd remembered to pay the electric bill to notice anything weird about it.

We'd been together for three years at that point, so morning kisses weren't exactly earth-shattering anymore. They were just part of the routine, you know? He'd kiss me, grab his coffee, complain about traffic, and head out the door while I was still trying to wake up enough to function like a human being.

But that morning he did something different.

I woke up to the sound of drawers opening and closing. Not the usual quiet sounds of him getting ready for work, but something more urgent.

I rolled over and squinted at the clock. 5:47 AM. Way too early for either of us to be awake on a Tuesday.

"Marcus?" My voice came out all scratchy with sleep. "What are you doing? It's not even six yet."

He froze. I mean completely froze, like someone had pressed pause on him. When he turned around, he had my old duffel bag in his hands. The one I kept shoved in the back of the closet for emergencies.

And it was stuffed full of his clothes.

I sat up fast, suddenly very awake. "Marcus, seriously, what's going on?"

"I didn't want to wake you up." He set the bag down and came to sit on the edge of the bed, but he wouldn't look at me. Just kept staring down at his hands like they were the most interesting things in the world. "I was just going to leave you a note on the counter."

My stomach dropped straight through the floor. "Leave me a note? What do you mean leave me a note? Are you going somewhere?"

"Yeah, I'm going somewhere." He let out this long breath. "I'm leaving, Nova."

I just stared at him because those words didn't make any sense strung together like that. "Leaving? Okay, where are they sending you? Is it another one of those last minute work trips? How long will you be gone?"

"No, not a work trip." He finally looked up at me, and there was something in his eyes that made my chest feel tight. "I'm leaving. As in, I'm packing my stuff and I'm not coming back to this apartment. I'm not coming back to you."

My brain couldn't process what he was saying. It was like he was speaking another language. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me right now."

"I'm breaking up with you." He said it flat out, just like that. "We're done. Us, this relationship, all of it. I can't do this anymore."

"Can't do what?" I threw the covers off and got out of bed, following him as he stood up and went back to the closet. "Marcus, what the hell is happening? Did I do something? Did we have a fight that I'm forgetting about? Just talk to me, we can work through whatever's wrong—"

"There's nothing to work through, Nova. It's not about a fight or you doing something wrong." He was pulling more of his stuff out now, throwing it into the bag without even folding anything. "This just isn't working. It hasn't been working for a while now, and I'm tired of pretending it is."

"A while?" My voice went up higher than I meant it to. "What do you mean a while? Why didn't you say something before now? Why are you springing this on me at six in the morning like some kind of ambush?"

He stopped packing and turned around to face me properly. "You really want me to spell it out for you? Fine. I don't love you anymore. Maybe I never really loved you the way I should have. And I need to get out of here before I waste any more time of my life pretending this is something it's not."

Each word hit me like a physical slap. I actually took a step backward, like putting distance between us would somehow make what he was saying hurt less.

"You don't mean that. You're just upset about something and you're not thinking straight—"

"I mean every word." He zipped up the duffel bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Look, I know this is a shitty way to do it but I just can't keep lying to your face anymore. I can't keep lying to myself."

"Lying about what?" I was crying now, tears just streaming down my face, but I didn't even care anymore. "Marcus, please. Please just talk to me. Whatever's wrong, we can fix it. We can go to counseling or take a break or whatever you need, just please don't do this—"

"There's nothing to fix." He walked past me toward the bedroom door. "This is just how it is. I'm sorry."

I grabbed his arm before he could leave, desperate and pathetic and completely past caring how I looked. "Please don't just walk out like this. At least tell me why. Give me a real reason. I deserve that much, don't I?"

He looked down at my hand on his arm, then back up at my face. And for just a second, I thought I saw something in his expression soften a little bit.

"You want a real reason?" His voice was quieter now, almost gentle. "The real reason is you don't belong with me, Nova. You never did. You belong somewhere else, with someone else. With people like them."

My blood went ice cold. "What are you talking about? People like who?"

"Don't play dumb. You know exactly who I'm talking about." He pulled his arm free from my grip, but he was careful about it. Like he was afraid I might actually break into pieces.

"Go back to where you came from. Go back to them. That's where you've always belonged. That's where you should have been this whole time instead of slumming it here with me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about right now." But even as I said it, my voice sounded hollow and fake, because some part of me knew exactly what he meant.

"Sure you don't." He gave me this sad sort of smile. "Take care of yourself, Nova. Try to be happy. And when you see them again, tell them I said they win."

"Marcus, wait, please—"

But he was already gone. The door clicked shut behind him and I could hear his footsteps getting quieter and quieter as he walked down the hallway toward the elevator.

I just stood there in the middle of our apartment in my pajamas, staring at that closed door.

My phone buzzed from the nightstand and I walked back to grab it, still feeling like I was moving through water or something.

Bank notification.

I clicked on it without really thinking about what I was doing.

WITHDRAWAL: $25,847.00

NEW BALANCE: $0.37

I stared at the screen. Blinked and read it again.

Thirty-seven cents. That was everything I had left in the entire world.