POV: Chloe
The city skyline rose on the horizon, swallowing the green hills of Blackthorn territory behind us. I watched it through the window, my reflection ghosting over the glass.
I couldn’t recognize my face; it felt like a stranger looking back at me.
"Seven years."
For seven years, I’d convinced myself I was over him. Seven years of cramped apartments and quiet nights—a life built around the absence of anything that might remind me of what I’d lost.
And then one drive up the mountain, one glimpse of him on a balcony, and all of it came apart like wet paper. It’s insane how my walls crashed down the second I set eyes on him.
I thought about meeting Ethan in a coffee shop six months ago. He’d flashed me that golden smile, and something in my chest loosened for the first time in y
