He didn’t want to feel. She didn’t want to break again. So of course, they were doomed.
—-
I stepped out of the car, just as Lily disappeared through the front door like a ghost I couldn’t stop chasing. Always slipping out of reach.
No hesitation. No glance back.
She was too graceful, too soft for a world like mine. And I hated that I noticed.
I hated her.
Or maybe I hated what she made me feel—things I’d buried so deep, I thought were dead. Things I didn’t want back. Things I didn’t deserve.
I shouldn’t be here but my father had summoned me with his usual cryptic tone—too smooth, too pleased. Which meant this wasn’t just business.
It was a trap. It always is.
Inside, the house was pristine, hollow. White walls, sterile decor, everything too clean. The kind of place where nothing
