STELLA'S POV
No… I wasn’t going to cry, I told myself as I rushed out of the building and into the street. The tears threatened to spill from the corner of my eyes.
I didn’t even care that people stared at me as I brushed past them. This was New York anyway—nobody liked minding their own business. But the hurt I felt inside drowned everything out.
Why did it hurt this much? Why did seeing James with another woman hurt this much? It wasn’t supposed to feel like this. It wasn’t supposed to feel like my heart was being ripped out of my chest.
This wasn’t real. Our relationship wasn’t real. It was just a façade, just a contract a convenient way to get his mother off his back. It was just an arrangement, nothing more. That was what I kept telling myself to make myself feel better, but it wa
