Liam’s POV
I sit in the room with Claudia, but my ears are elsewhere—trained on the muffled voices outside the door. Every word from my mother to Lila cuts deeper than the last. I hear the goodbye. The soft but final sound of her voice.
Then… silence.
The kind that fills every inch of your chest and squeezes the air out of it.
My heart drums painfully in my ribs. I can still see Lila’s eyes—right before she turned away from me. Those eyes, full of quiet devastation, of a thousand things left unsaid. Pain I caused her. Pain I have no right to hold onto.
But this is for the best.
She leaves now. While there’s still time. Before she becomes another casualty in my life.
It’s safer this way. For her. For everyone.
Because the last thing I want is to destroy her future, just because she
