the room as there was no sound in the room. Beatr

uldn't stop thinking about the last few days- the engagement, the betrayal,

residence in my chest. Beatrice sat across me, her eyes looked with concern and som

but I refused to let them drop. I had cried

k wasn't the kind of man you thought he was. But you didn't listen, you w

above a whisper. "But I thought...I thought he

yes narrowed slightly, her lips pressing into a thin line.

it. But now everything was in the open, it was a bet from the start. Did he

w he was playi

t the first person to fall for someone who wasn't who they said they were but you have to see i

t. I don't know. I wanted to believe him. I thought I could be the one he cha

r intended to change. Once a playboy always a playboy. B

ant to think he was using me. But now...now I don't know what to believe. I don't even k

Her touch was warm and steady, grounding me during the emotional chaos I was feeling. "I know he was everyth

me feel so small. So empty. How could I have been so blind to

ill swirling around me. "I just... I wanted i

s insistent. "And you deserve real, Stella. You deserve someone who will love you fo

was something else, something I couldn't deny: she was right. Jack had

re I could stop them. "I thought maybe I could be the one to change him, to make

't change someone like Jack, Stella. Not if they don't want to cha

roat. "But I wanted to believe I was special.

the way you think. Jack used you for his own game. He wasn't loo

ck, the love I had thought we shared-it was all a lie, and I couldn't deny it anymo

d, my voice trembling. "I thought... I thoug

will be loved, Stella. You will find someone who sees you for w

een wrong to believe in him. I had been wrong to think that Jack'

d, my voice small and uncertain. "I

y, if you need to. You grieve, because it's okay to feel hurt. But you don't let him h

me, even when I couldn't see what was right in front of me. She had warned me, and now

to thank you, Be

d, her smile warm and genuine. "I'm your best

time in a long tim