The cold was a physical shock, but it was nothing compared to the glacial emptiness spreading from my core. Snowflakes caught in my eyelashes and melted on my heated cheeks, mingling with the salt of frozen tears. Derek was gone. The terrace doors had swung shut, sealing me in a crystal prison of my making.
Figure it out.
His words echoed in the hollow space he’d left behind, more piercing than the winter wind. They weren’t an accusation of betrayal but something worse: an accusation of indecision. He thought I was perched between two worlds, his and Evan’s, and until I jumped, he wouldn’t wait at the bottom to catch me.
The muffled swell of the orchestra and laughter from the ballroom felt like a mockery. Out here, my world had just ended. In there, the charity gala went on, oblivious.
