Spread out on the coffee table, there were pictures of her, so many pictures, her and him, her and her sister, her and the guys, and her alone. The most disturbing one was in the center. It had once been the most beautiful, a close up of him and her, her blonde hair framing her beautiful face, their matching blue eyes twinkling with delight, wide, true smiles spread across their happy faces. However, she had torn it down the center the day she left. He found it on his pillow, left there for him. Harsh sobs began to rack his throat as he broke down, yet again. She had torn apart his life that day.
The news reporter’s voice pulled him back to the present and he looked down at the aspirin in his hand, twenty of them. That would do it. He popped the first two in his mouth, but the mention of her name on TV caused him to spit them out and drop the rest.
“College student Lauren Winters was found brutally beaten in the parking lot of her apartment building. Her attacker, Greg Patterson, is in police custody, and she is at Tampa General. We have not been told her condition.”
Nick didn’t stay to hear the rest. He was already in the car on the way to the hospital. “Too quiet,” he muttered, turning on the radio.
“I’ll never break your heart, I’ll never make you-” Nick turned his own song off. He’d rather have silence than be reminded of that fateful night that he had sung that song to her. She had been so scared, so helpless…that night was Greg’s fault. They should have known he’d come back.