Page 134 of The Restoration Program

He opened the door and didn’t even look at Nicole. “She’ll be back home soon enough.”

Nicole leaned hard against Darlene and squeezed her eyes shut as they passed the threshold.

No wonder he wasn’t fighting to keep her. There was no question in his mind that she still belonged to him.

DAY ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE

“Nicole?”

She blinked and looked up, fog lifting from her mind. They were at Darlene’s living room table beside the window, bathed in sunlight. “Sorry,” Nicole said. “What did you say?”

“I said, if you’re not ready to call, you don’t have to, you know?” Darlene folded her arms on the table and frowned at her phone, which she had slid in front of Nicole. The Facility’s number was already typed in. All that was left was to hit the call button.

“I’ve already put it off, like, ten times,” Nicole mumbled.

“If they find out you haven’t been living in your apartment the past couple weeks, will they… I mean, they wouldn’t force you to move to the Facility, right?”

“I doubt it. I just—” Nicole released a slow breath. “I don’t know what I want yet,” she admitted.

She had kept minimal contact with Ryan via Darlene. Necessities, mostly. She missed parts of the familiarity of her routine with him, but the feel and smell of him had irrevocably lost its charm. Living away from him brought a lightness to her soul that unsettled her.

What did her future look like without him?

“You know you can stay here as long as you want,” Darlene said. “And if you need me to attest to anything you say about what he did, you know I’ve got you.”

Nicole swallowed hard and brushed away the budding tears before they could fall.

This isn’t the ending I wanted.

She hugged Darlene’s arm and gathered courage for her next move. “If Ryan and I can just get back into counseling, then maybe we…”

She trailed off when Darlene shut her eyes to gather herself. Any mention of going within a mile of Ryan elicited that reaction. But Darlene didn’t try to stop her. She heaved a reluctant sigh and pressed her hand against Nicole’s back to hug her in return.

“I’ll give you some privacy,” Darlene said, pushing herself up from the chair. “Shout if you need anything.”

Her socked feet were quiet on the carpet as she made her way to the kitchen. Nicole stared at the numbers typed on the screen while she listened to Darlene filling the electric kettle with water for tea. She had a cinnamon-anise loose leaf that warmed the soul. Nicole thought about waiting until after she had a cup—maybe her nerves would be less frayed. However, she’d find another excuse not to call after that.

It felt like a dive into freezing water as she laid her hand on the green call button. She tapped the speaker icon as it rang. Second stretched on. Maybe Dr. Jenning wouldn’t pick up. Surely, she was too busy to answer an unknown number in the middle of a Monday morning—

“Hello? Who is this?” A clear, cut voice abruptly ended the monotonous ringtone.

“It’s—” Nicole’s throat was sandpaper, every word rasping like a desperate apology. “It’s Nicole Zhou… Northe. I’m sorry to call without a heads-up, but I-I need to speak with you.”

“Nicole!” Warmth replaced Jenning’s defensive tone. A faint scuffle came over the line—the sound of a door being shut and a chair scraping against the floor. “What can I do for you? I’ve left messages trying to… What number are you calling from?”

“Darlene’s cell.”

“Your coworker. Yes, I remember. Does that mean you’re back in—”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I… I need to apologize. Directly. Right off the bat, I just want you to know that I’m so sorry about what Ryan did. I’m mortified for the both of us. I never expected… Please just know that his actions don’t reflect on both of us. He was out of line.”

The pause on the other line was excruciating. Nicole waited, her stomach twisting with every second that passed.

“Dr. Jenning? Are you still there?”

A soft breath from the other line crackled through the static. “I’m sorry, Nicole. I’m not following. Was there an incident on the property? What exactly did Ryan do?”

Nicole sputtered. “But you…Youwere the one who emailed us the termination notice.”