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UNPLANNED
_______________________________________
UNSTOPPABLE #4
DANIELLE HILL
Copyright © 2022 Danielle Hill
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied, resold, or distributed in any form, or by
any electronic or mechanical means, without permission in writing from the author, except
for brief quotations within a review. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or
distribute it by any other means without permission.
Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events, and incidents are either the
product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Danielle Hill asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Epilogue
What to Read Next?
Stay In Touch
Also by Danielle Hill
About the Author
Acknowledgements
Prologue
___________________
NOVA
NOVA
“MOM?”
The house was too quiet as I climbed the stairs and made my way
down the hall, the soles of my sneakers soft against the laminate
floor. I stopped at the last door and nudged it open. The empty
room confirmed my suspicions, causing my shoulders to sag with an
all-too familiar sense of disappointment.
The rumpled bedsheets still bore the imprint of her body, but a
hand to the fabric found it cold to the touch, telling me everything I
needed to know.
Long gone. She’d probably taken off minutes after I did this
morning, her addiction winning out over her desire to get clean, or
any maternal affection she once had for her only child. I lowered to
the floor with a weary sigh, the crushing weight of defeat draping
heavily across my shoulders like a cast-iron blanket.
My head sank bank into the wall with a dull thud, while guilt
settled like an anchor in my gut, spearing me to the floor. There was
no escape from it, even knowing I couldn’t do or give any more than
I already had.
My mother was a lost cause I couldn’t figure out how to quit
fighting.
When she’d turned up a few days ago and begged for my help, I’d
dropped everything. Taken off work to stay by her side, hoping this
time would be different from all the others, even while trying to steel
myself for the inevitable.
Now she was gone again, and honestly, I should have been numb
to it.
The gripping ache in my chest and lump blocking my throat
suggested otherwise, though. I swallowed over them, but the tell-
tale sting of frustrated tears behind my eyelids prompted me to
crush my hands into fists and jam them against my eye sockets.
Don’t cry, Nova. Don’t you dare cry.
Even if I couldn’t bring myself to give up on her, I couldn’t allow
her to drag me down into the gaping hole of despair she left behind
in her wake every time she skipped town, either.
Every couple of months, she’d show up. Usually because she
needed something. Money I didn’t have, a place to stay. Sometimes
she’d stick around for a week or two, a month at most. Then I’d
wake up to find her gone. Until the next time.
A never-ending cycle. Around and around, we went.
But every now and then, she’d come home and ask for help.
Swear she wanted to get clean. The cynical side of my brain told me
nothing would change, that we’d heard it all before, but despite
everything, the dreamer in me had yet to die.
So, when she asked for help, I was powerless to deny her.
Hope had a way of holding the impossible up in just the right light
to make it look achievable, all the while knowing she was about to
rip out your heart and squeeze it to mulch between her fingers.
“Nova?”
I pushed to my feet at the sound of the front door closing,
brushing my hands over my cheeks to wipe my face bare.
“Nov?”
“In here,” I called, lifting my head to the sound of approaching
footsteps.
Maura appeared in the doorway a second later, dressed in a pair
of light wash skinny jeans and a thin black sweater. Her blond brows
closed together upon finding the space empty, and then…
resignation.
A split second. That’s how quickly hope could die.
We’d been waiting for it. We always were.
“She’s gone,” Maura stated flatly, her pale-blue gaze finding mine.
I cleared my throat with a curt nod. “Looks like it.”
“Did she take anything?”
I shrugged a shoulder, glancing around the room. “Nothing
important.”
We’d long since learned to make sure not to leave money or
valuables where my mom could get her hands on them. Not that we
had much of value lying around the house, anyway. But if it could be
sold, and wasn’t nailed down, she’d take it.
“Nov—” Maura began, but I cut her off with a firm shake of my
head and walked over to the bed.
With a silent nod, she joined me, wordlessly helping to strip the
sheets from the mattress and erase all traces of my mother from the
room. My room. My bed. The same one I’d camped beside on the
floor, so I’d be close to my mother if she needed me. Close enough
to wipe her brow with a damp cloth, clean her vomit, and quiet her
desperate cries as the symptoms of withdrawal ravaged her body.
Pain bloomed in my chest as I pictured her face streaked with
tears, her weathered skin clammy as I’d wrapped my arms around
her convulsing body. The moment she’d looked me straight in the
eyes and begged me to end it. I shuttered my lids and shook it
away.
I could feel Maura’s eyes on me as we worked, heavy with
concern in my periphery, but this was far from our first rodeo. As my
mom’s best friend since childhood and the woman who’d stepped up
when my mom had checked out, Maura Jacobson had been there
through almost all of it. She knew words were worthless. All the
platitudes in the world couldn’t alter reality, or the harsh truth of it.
My mom would either come back one day and finally get clean, or
she wouldn’t. And we both knew what that meant.
Taking the material from Maura’s hand, I bundled it into a tight
ball against my stomach as I stared at the unmade bed and
wondered if there would be a next time. Or if this was the time she’d
stay away for good, and we’d never see her again.
The selfish thought I failed to bury—that sometimes I just wished
it was over so we wouldn’t have to live in this constant state of
limbo—compressed the air within my lungs. A black shadow of
remorse that wrapped around my throat like phantom fingers, until I
couldn’t take a full breath and darkness pooled around the edges of
my vision.
Because our truth was inescapable.
It didn’t matter how much I wanted to; I couldn’t save my mother
from herself.
Some days, it was all I could do to hope she wouldn’t take me
down with her.
Chapter Two
___________________________
NOVA
I RAISED A brow over the bar, spearing Jake with a blank look
until he did as requested and filled the shot glass to the brim with
tequila.
“You’re gonna get my ass fired,” he muttered, sliding the drink
toward me.
I picked it up and threw it back, wincing lightly as the liquid hit the
back of my throat. Then I set the glass back down on the scuffed
surface.
“Oh, please.” My best friend, Gabriella Murphy, dropped onto the
bar stool beside me. “Half the people in here are underage.”
Jake faced her and tipped his chin. “Yeah, but I know you two
are.”
Gaby arched a near-black eyebrow. “That’s got nothing to do with
it and you know it. You just can’t get your head around the fact
we’re not fourteen anymore.”
Jake narrowed his dark-green eyes but refrained from responding
to the accusation. Instead, he retrieved the empty glass and held it
up. “You’re both done.”
Gaby scowled as Jake made his way to the other side of the bar to
serve a bunch of rowdy students. My gaze trailed around the room,
taking in the few familiar, but mostly unfamiliar faces. I’d attended
Lakeview University for two years, but hadn’t been too heavily
involved in the social aspect of college. With a GPA to maintain and
bills to pay, partying wasn’t exactly a regular occurrence for me.
Situated a short walk from Lakeview U, though, the town I grew
up in drew a big college crowd and Harvey’s was notorious for
serving almost anyone with a fake ID. Which was probably why the
place was rammed with students returning to school after summer
break in preparation for classes starting up next week.
The doors swung open, and I watched three guys walk through.
One short, with a shock of stark red hair and a heavy smattering of
similarly colored freckles. The second had light brown hair with a
long, narrow build. My gaze strayed to the third guy and narrowed
on his face. Tall with a wide frame and rumpled dirty-blonde hair
that looked like either he or someone else had spent all day pushing
their fingers through it. He weaved his way through the crowd with a
confident swagger that should not have been as sexy as it was.
“How are you holding up?” Gaby asked, pulling my attention back.
Blonde guy forgotten, I cleared my throat as the events of the
past few days re-surfaced with a vengeance. Apparently, the
numbing effect of the alcohol had yet to kick in.
“I’m fine.”
“Nov.” Gaby sighed. “It’s me. Put on a front for everyone else if
you have to, but not with me.”
I swallowed, feeling my throat constrict.
Gaby—all five feet nothing of her with enviable curves and a
squat-honed behind people would pay a skilled surgeon a crap ton of
money for—had never let me hide. Not even from the beginning.
Back in freshman year of high school, when I’d carried a chip on my
shoulder the size of a small crater and a backpack housing a
lifetime’s worth of bad memories, she’d forced her way into my life
when all I’d wanted to do was spend my days fading away into
obscurity.
Somehow, she’d sensed I needed someone before I knew it
myself. I doubt I’d ever have admitted it.
Life taught me at an early age not to rely on anyone. The less you
expected, the harder it was for people to let you down. But over the
years Gaby had proved she was here to stay, and I’d be forever
grateful to the little girl with the uber shiny black hair and her
dogged persistence. Glad she’d continued to plonk herself down
beside me every day at lunch, hand me one of her mom’s
homemade cookies, then regale me with endless commentary about
her life, despite the fact it took me two months to build up the
courage to respond.
“I know,” I murmured, lowering my gaze to the bar where the
blunt edge of my un-manicured fingernail scratched at the chipped
surface. At Gaby’s continued silence, I shrugged. “There’s nothing
really to say, Gabs.” Nothing we hadn’t said a hundred times before.
“Just because you expect someone to hurt you doesn’t mean you
don’t still feel the pain, Nov. It doesn’t mean you don’t still need to
talk about it, either. As strong as you are, you’re only human.”
My hand stilled for a beat, a ripple of emotion rendering me mute,
motionless.
“You know I’m here for you, right?”
Concerned brown eyes awaited mine when I finally glanced up. I
drew in a breath before offering her a faint smile. “Of course.”
“Good.” She squeezed my hand, the edges of her black bob gliding
over her shoulders as she nodded. “When or if you’re ready, I’m all
ears.”
My lips curved a fraction higher, before I tapped my fingers
against the bar and brought my head up to catch Jake’s attention.
Who was clearly ignoring me.
“What I really need,” I muttered, “is tequila.”
Gaby chuckled beside me, her hand briefly rubbing my arm before
she cupped her palms either side of her mouth and screeched,
“Jake! Get that cute ass over here!”
I laughed when Jake’s mouth pinched in at the sides. His
shadowed jaw rolled as he sauntered back over and planted both
palms down on the bar in front of us, one dark eyebrow raised.
“What now?”
“That’s a shocking attitude for someone in the service industry,
Jacob,” Gaby admonished. Then, without missing a beat, she sucked
her lower lip between her teeth and dipped forward until Jake’s gaze
landed exactly where she wanted it.
Four years older than us, Jacob Marsden dated Gaby’s cousin Rina
throughout high school, until Rina moved to Texas for college six
years ago and never came back. He was friends with Gaby’s older
sister, Eva, too. Along with Rina, they’d all belonged to the same
social circle in high school. Which meant Jake had always seen Gaby
as the baby. A fact she’d bemoaned for as long as I’d known her,
mostly because she’d been crushing on Jake since she was fourteen.
Something she’d never made a secret of. In fact, she’d boldly
proclaimed at Eva’s high school graduation party that Jake could do
better than her cousin. Without an ounce of timidity, she’d told him
when he realized that himself in a few years’ time, he’d know where
to find her.
Jake had laughed off the numerous advances from our
overconfident little sass queen over the years. But by the time he’d
returned home from college, Gaby had turned eighteen, developed
killer curves and an even more lethal attitude, and suddenly, Jake
wasn’t as unaffected as he used to be. Not that he’d voiced the
opinion or overstepped the invisible mark that existed between
them. Just meant he wanted to.
Jake straightened, running a palm over the scruff along his jawline
as he cleared his throat and tried to peel his eyes from Gaby’s ample
cleavage.
“Come on, Jake,” Gaby simpered, lowering her voice to a throaty
whisper. “We’ve got fake IDs like everyone else here. Just pretend
you don’t know us for one night. Please?”
His throat worked as he swallowed, and when his forest green
gaze rose to my best friend’s rich brown one, something flickered
across his eyes that suggested he wouldn’t be opposed to the idea
of them both being someone else for the night. Amused, I wagged
my head and wondered how much longer they’d dance around each
other before Jake finally gave in to what they clearly wanted.
“Fine,” Jake muttered as he grabbed the tequila bottle. Without
breaking eye contact, he tossed it up to spin through the air, caught
it upside down by the neck in his right hand, then filled two glasses
to the brim, and slid them across the bar in one fluid motion.
The breathy sound that spilled from Gaby’s mouth tugged Jake’s
lips up into a cocky half-smirk. He turned with a wink and sauntered
away.
“Fuck,” Gaby breathed, heavy-lidded and flushed. “I think he just
made me come without laying a finger on me.”
I reached for the shot glass. “Doesn’t he do that every night?”
A playful elbow nudged my side. “Keep your voice down.”
“Oh, please.” I scoffed before swallowing the tequila. “Like he
doesn’t already know.”
“Probably,” she conceded with a shrug, then downed her shot and
winced. “I’m just wondering when the fuck he’s ever going to do
anything about it.”
My mouth curved into a sympathetic smile as my best friend
slammed the glass down on the polished wood with a bang. I had
more than enough problems of my own to contend with, but for
tonight, I was content to focus on someone else’s.
Chapter Three
_______________________________
NOVA
IRAKU-LEUTE WAFIOMI