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The face was half-shadowed by leaves, but I knew that stance.
That look, the smirk that crawled across his mouth when he knew he had control.
Marcus.
A chill sliced through the warmth of the afternoon, and I felt myself go rigid.
Cole must have noticed the change because he leaned forward, his brows knitting together with concern.
“Tori, what is it?” Cole asked.
I couldn’t find the words. I was hoping—desperately—that my mind was playing tricks on me.
That I’d imagined Marcus’s face in the blur of the trees, a ghost conjured by my own fear.
But he was still there, gaze fixed on me and, more chillingly, on Cole.
His lips curled in a lazy, arrogant wave before he turned.
Marcus strolled off, hands casually in his pockets as if he hadn’t just sent a jolt of terror into my soul.
“Who was that?” Cole’s voice was tight, a low growl simmering just below the surface.
I looked up at him, surprised to see a dark, almost feral glint in his eyes, a promise of danger lurking beneath his composed exterior.
For a second, he looked like a predator—a protector ready to strike. It should have scared me. But it didn’t.
“Marcus,” I said quietly, my voice barely audible. “He’s… my ex-fiancé.”
The words felt foreign, stiff, as if I hadn’t said them aloud in a long time.
Cole’s jaw tightened, and a flicker of something dark crossed his expression.
“I see,” he murmured, each word careful and measured. “So he’s the one who hurt you.”
It was less of a question and more of a statement.
Though I wanted to argue, to tell him that I wasn’t some broken doll, the truth clung to me like an unwanted shadow.
Marcus had hurt me, yes—physically, emotionally and mentally, until I’d barely recognized myself in the mirror.
He’d twisted pieces of me until I’d felt trapped, suffocated by a love that had never been love at all.
“He is,” I admitted, my voice shaking just slightly.
I swallowed, struggling to meet Cole’s steady, expectant gaze.
I continued, “It was a long time ago, five years, actually. We were young, and I… I thought he was it for me.”
Cole reached across the table, his fingers brushing mine, grounding me in the moment.
“What happened?” Cole asked.
“He… changed. Or maybe he was always like that, and I just didn’t see it. He became controlling, possessive. I couldn’t even go out with friends without him demanding to know every detail of where I was, who I was with.” I laughed bitterly.
I remembered the claustrophobic feeling of his shadow following me everywhere.
I added, “Eventually, he made me feel like I was nothing without him. But one day, I found the courage to leave. I never looked back.”