“Hey Sweetheart.”

The blur of the man who grabbed my arm was unexpected. I spun around, lost my balance and slammed my shoulder hard against the wall.

When I had drifted out of the ladies changing room, the last voice I had expected to hear saying my name was his. But from the way he stood and stared down at me from his large frame, he looked pleased with himself that he had finally tracked me down.

Don’t show your fear.

No, I refused to show Daniel how startled I was.

As I took a deep breath, I remembered the day we had first met just like it was yesterday. A few Christmases ago, it hadn’t taken long to fall in love with the man he had pretended to be. But it had felt like forever to disentangle myself from the evil man he truly was.

My feet were cemented to the floor and my shoulder burned with soreness.

“Daniel, how did you find me? I told you to leave me alone!”

“Look, I’ve given you more than enough time to come to your senses. I miss you. I love you.”

“Well, the feeling is not mutual. What part of no don’t you understand?”

“You can’t just stop loving someone after a few months.” He lowered his voice when two women exiting the changing room gave us an odd look.

“Are you okay?” one of them asked me as the other one hung back.

“She’s fine. Mind your own fucking business!” he growled at her. From the way the two women kept looking back at me, I knew that they were headed to the security desk.

“You aren’t worthy of being with me…you never were nor will you ever be. It would have to snow in hell before I ever gave you another chance.”

I tried my best to put on my game face and a firm voice. The fake smile on his face vanished and his grip tightened on my arm as I heard hurried steps of more than one person echoing towards us.

“Well then sweetheart…” he said, squeezing the circulation from my arm. “Let it snow.”

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