Page 4 of Mended Fences

“Find a meeting. Find a sponsor. Find a job.” The words tasted bitter, like the bile I’d spent days puking up during detox at Harbor Hall. The facility had a gorgeous view of Little Traverse Bay, all golden leaves back in September when I’d first stumbled in. Now December had frozen everything solid, matching the knot of dread in my gut. “Then I go on my one-man apology tour.”

The weight of all those burned bridges pressed down on myshoulders. It was time I mended fences, one relationship at a time.

Fuck, there were so many people I had to make things right with.

Charlie...God, Charlie. The image of my baby sister in that hospital bed still haunted my nightmares—tubes everywhere, her tiny body broken because her big brother was too coked out to keep the bike upright.

Then Mom, who hadn’t slept for days while Charlie was in the ICU. Dad. Elliot. Jasper. Kai. The list of people I’d hurt felt endless.

But Elena... Elena was different. She wasn’t simply anothersomeoneI needed to apologize to—she was the reason I’d finally dragged my ass to rehab, the reason I’d stayed when every cell in my body screamed to run. She was the future I couldn’t have unless I got clean, unless I became someone worthy of her trust.

“You got this,” Jackson said, and for once, I almost believed him. “I’ll see you next week.”

My legs shook as I pushed up from the chair. Twelve weeks clean and I still felt like a newborn colt sometimes, relearning how to just fucking exist without chemical assistance. Each step toward the door was another test of resolve.

“And Chase?”

I looked back, catching his eye.

“Good luck with Elena. I’m rooting for you two.”

I nodded, throat too tight for words. Elena deserved someone whole. Someone steady. Someone who wouldn’t shatter her trust or add to the mountain of trauma her bastard husband had already heaped on her shoulders. She’d had enough men in her life who’d hurt her—physically,emotionally. The thought of causing her any kind of pain made me physically sick.

Peter had broken her trust with fists and cruel words. I’d broken hers and everyone else’s trust with powder and bottles. I’d never laid a hand on her, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t left a mark.

I wasn’t worthy of her yet. But god help me, I was fighting like hell to become someone who could make her feel safe instead of scared, cherished instead of controlled.

Someone who would never, ever make her flinch.

If she let me.

If she would even speak to me.

If she hadn’t already moved the hell on.

Chapter Three

ELENA

Then, December 2023

“Hey, Sweetness.”A tall, broad man slid into the side of the booth Tessa had just vacated. He had a head of thick, dark hair and blazing blue eyes. “You new in town?”

As if the aforementioned features weren’t enough, he flashed me a dazzling smile of straight, white teeth. If I were any other woman, I’m sure I would be downright melting for this man.

But I was Elena Ventura—ElenaStone.

Harvard Medical School graduate.

Accomplished emergency medicine physician.

And someone else’s wife.

But he didn’t need to know that. Tonight, I could be anyone. Here, in the small town of Sable Point, I didn’t have to thinkabout any of the events of the past five years. I didn’t have to think about what was waiting for me back home in Detroit.

The dingy little dive bar Tessa brought me to was unlike any establishment I’d been to since we lived together during our undergraduate years at UC Davis.

Seems like an entirely different life.