I am pitiful.
The truth settled cold and heavy in her chest.
She was waiting for a call from a man who had trapped her on an island, controlled her movements, upended her life — a man who, despite everything that had happened between them, hadn’t even spared her five minutes to call in almost 24 hours since he left. She understood the gravity of his family’s situation, she truly did, but being left like this, suspended between intimacy and abandonment, felt cruel in a way she hadn’t anticipated.
She had hoped — foolishly — that what they shared had changed something, that maybe, just maybe, he had begun to see her differently.
Now she understood.
For him, it had been desire. Intense, consuming, but ultimately physical.
For her…
Her throat tightened as tears burned behind her eyes.
