~ The day before ~

"Mariah!"

She lifts her head from her book about poetry to face the woman running towards her.

"Annabeth!" She greets her friend, standing up to greet her. "Haven't seen you since college. I though you left town?"

"And I though you swore off coffee after Lizzy was born?" Annabeth says, laughing. "But to answer your question, no, the country life didn't agree with me."

"Oh?" Mariah asked, collecting her coffee from the waitress. She didn't expect to see anyone she knew here, as the current coffee shop was well hidden, and not many people knew of it.

Her friend sat down opposite her, and only now did she realise there was a teenager boy next to her, busy on his phone.

"Yes, I can't wait to tell you all about it," Annabeth continued. "But where are my manners? Mariah, this is Adam, my son."

He looked up briefly before going back to his phone.

His mother laughed nervously. "He's a little shy, you know. Not that good with meeting new people."

"Hmm," Mariah hummed, letting her friend talk on about what she'd been up to the last few years.

In her mind though, she matched up the name with another, one her daughter had told her about.

Adam. The one who hurt Lizzy.

Behind her coffee cup, she smiled.