Third Person's POV
Looking at those messages, Elena finally broke.
The tears fell one after another, splashing onto the screen of her comm-stone and blurring the warm words.
She scrambled to wipe them away with her sleeve, but the more she rubbed, the more they came.
She couldn't see him. She absolutely could not see him.
She took a shaky breath, forcing down a sob, and typed back carefully.
Liana: "Z... can we just... not meet?"
Inside the jazz lounge, Zander was still sitting in the shadows by the window.
The single red rose on the table was already starting to wilt.
When he saw her reply, his brow furrowed.
If anyone else had rejected him, he wouldn't have given it a second thought.
But this was Liana. She was the only one who had ever made his heart race—the fated mate he wa
