[Tara's Pov]
Their car pulls out of the Swirlies parking lot, and I give them a thirty-second head start before following. My fingers drum against the steering wheel, adrenaline coursing through my veins like a drug I'd forgotten the taste of. Seven years of searching, of hiring private investigators who found nothing, of following false leads and dead ends, and there he was, licking ice cream like some innocent schoolboy, standing next to the last person on earth I'd expect to see him with.
My Leo. My beautiful, broken Leo who vanished without a trace. Found at last.
I keep three cars between us as we wind through the early evening traffic. The setting sun casts everything in a golden glow that feels almost mocking in its beauty. This should be a romantic moment, our reunion, not this covert surveillance operation. But Leo made his choice when he ran. Now I'm making mine.
Their sedan takes a right turn toward down one of the better streets in Lynnfield. Of course Sabrina Hart would live in a neighborhood with manicured lawns and tasteful outdoor lighting. Even in high school, she tried so hard to seem sophisticated when really she was just a pretentious nobody with delusions of depth. Seeing her standing there in Swirlies with her arm wrapped around Leo's waist made something primitive and violent surge through me.
I hang back as they pull into a driveway of a modest but well-kept house. Not what I expected. I figured Sabrina would have insisted on something more ostentatious, something that screamed "look how successful I am now." Maybe Leo softened her edges. He always had that effect on me.
I coast past their house, circling the block before parking across the street and down about fifty feet. Perfect vantage point of their living room windows. The streetlights haven't kicked on yet, and my black Audi blends into the shadows between two towering oaks. I kill the engine and settle in, fishing a pair of compact binoculars from my glove compartment. A precaution I've carried for years, never knowing when I might need them in my search.
"Hello, baby," I whisper, focusing the lenses on their front door as they disappear inside. "Miss me?"
The memory of our last night together hits me with physical force. Leo sprawled across my red silk sheets, his skin glowing in the candlelight as I traced the contours of his body with my fingertips. The way he shivered when I whispered "I love you" against the sensitive skin below his ear. How he melted into me afterward, his body trusting and pliant in sleep. And then, the cold emptiness of waking to find him gone the next morning. No note. No explanation. Just the lingering scent of him on my pillowcase and the crushing weight of abandonment.
I spent the first year convinced he was dead, probably from overdose. The second year thinking he'd been taken. By the third year, I'd accepted the truth, he'd run from me. From us. From what we could have been together.
The lights flick on in their living room, illuminating the domestic scene through half-closed blinds. I lift the binoculars, adjusting the focus until I can see them clearly.
"What did she do to you, baby?" I murmur, watching as Sabrina's hands start pawing at him with desperate, classless urgency. No finesse. No appreciation for the art of him. "Did she convince you this is love?"
I remember how carefully I had to approach Leo in those early days. How skittish he was beneath that practiced seductive veneer. I never rushed him, never pushed too hard. I paid double his rate just to hold him while he slept sometimes, to show him that his body wasn't all I wanted. I was patient. I was kind. And slowly, so slowly, I earned his trust. Watched his professional mask slip away to reveal the wounded, beautiful soul beneath.
And this bitch, this nothing person from my past, somehow has him now? He wears a ring that claims him as hers? The unfairness of it burns like acid in my throat.
Through the binoculars, I watch as Sabrina shoves Leo against the couch, her movements aggressive and unrefined. She kisses him like she's trying to devour him, all teeth and desperation. I can almost taste the jealousy radiating off her from here. She must have connected the dots at Swirlies, realized what Leo and I were to each other. Her insecurity is practically visible, a desperate animal clawing at what she fears losing.
I lower the binoculars with trembling hands, my jaw clenched so tight I can feel a headache forming at my temples. My stomach churns as I watch them touching each other through the window. It's crude. Beneath him.
Beneath what we had.
I can't watch this anymore. I've seen enough.
With a slow, deliberate breath, I pull up the GPS on my phone and save their location, adding a little skull emoji next to the address. I trace my finger over the screen, memorizing the surrounding streets, the layout of the neighborhood. Knowledge is power, and now I have both.
"I found you," I whisper, a smile spreading across my face despite the ache in my chest. "After all this time."
I start my car, the engine purring to life with a reassuring rumble. No need to sit here torturing myself with visions of Sabrina's hands on what rightfully belongs to me. I have what I came for. The hunt is over, now the real game begins.
As I pull away from the curb, I catch one last glimpse of their silhouettes through the living room window. My fingers tighten around the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white.
"Enjoy him while you can, Sabrina," I murmur, easing into the flow of evening traffic. "He was mine before he was yours. He'll be mine again."