Three Hours Late

Liz has left her husband Alex, but not the fear he instilled in her over years of a relationship that swung between tenderness and violence. Today, when Alex returns their young son Luke from a supervised visit, Liz plans to finally tell him it's really over.

But two o'clock comes and goes with no sign of Alex or Luke. As the hours pass, Liz's anxiety curdles into dread, and the novel moves back through the history of her marriage — how a loving, attentive man became possessive and abusive, and how the cycle of apology and reconciliation kept her tethered to him long after the relationship turned dangerous.

Nicole Trope builds a tense, real-time countdown around a mother's fear for her missing child, while unpacking the psychological mechanics of coercive control and the difficulty of truly leaving an abusive partner.