**Chapter 73**
ELLIE'S POV
I didn’t plan to speak to her.
I only went back to the café because the not-knowing had started to feel worse than the knowing. For days the idea of her had lived in the back of my mind like a splinter — present in every late night Richard came home smelling like someone else’s shampoo, present in every careful silence at the dinner table, present in the way he no longer bothered to lie with any real effort. I told myself I would sit in the car, watch, confirm, and leave. Instead I walked inside and took a table near the window like any other customer. My hands were steady when I ordered coffee. They only started shaking when she came out of the back with a tray.
Jenna.
She was younger up close. Twenty-three, maybe twenty-four. Pretty in an easy, unforced w
