Edrick’s POV
I watch her walk away.
Alina.
The woman I held.
The woman I kissed.
The woman I touched like she was something precious.
The woman whose body I memorized, whose laugh I carried in my chest, whose presence felt like oxygen after years of numbness.
And now she’s walking out of the hall like a ghost.
Like a stranger.
Like someone I never knew.
And I can’t breathe.
My chest aches, pain? Heartache? Something sharp and ugly and merciless. I don’t even know what to call it. I don’t even understand it.
Did I love her?
I don’t know.
But I felt something for her, something powerful enough to pull me back into life after years of darkness. Something strong enough to make me ignore every instinct, every warning, every doubt.
And all this time… she was a liar.
A manipulator
