Ayla
I paced back and forth in front of the mirror, my reflection the only audience to my restless footsteps. Every now and then I spoke to it, as if the girl staring back at me could give answers my tangled mind couldn’t.
Papa’s words still echoed in my head. It had been over an hour, yet they clung to me like ink stains on paper.
He invited River to dinner. I still couldn’t believe it.
Wasn’t it just a few days ago that Papa himself warned me to stay away from River? And now, out of nowhere, he wanted him at our family’s dinner table? It didn’t make sense.
I knew Papa always had hidden motives, and my suspicious mind kept circling back, trying to find the reason behind his sudden change. He wanted something—of that I was certain.
But beneath the suspicion, there was another feeling
