Chapter 27

[ 483 words ]

Chapter 27:

I stayed where I was, my gaze fixed on the ointment still sitting on my ankle, not yet absorbed, and a bitter feeling crept in.

How pathetic. To him, I probably meant nothing at all compared to Ivy.

Pulling my legs in, I lowered my head against my knees, letting the tears fall freely onto the smooth silk beneath me.

Once again, I had made a fool of myself.

Lianne’s POV:

Ever since Ethan walked out, it was like he had dropped clean out of my life.

Day after day passed without so much as a message from him.

I couldn’t bring myself to accept that.

I kept reopening my social media over and over, scrolling through every half-baked rumor about him and Ivy, until my eyes turned dry and achy and I finally drifted off from sheer exhaustion.

On Saturday night, before turning in, I thoughtfully left a soft, amber light glowing by the bed.

Somewhere deep inside, in spite of everything, I was still hoping he might return in the middle of the night.

𝖱оmа𝘯𝖼𝖾 n𝗼𝗏е𝗅s 𝘰𝗻 𝗴a𝗅𝗻𝗈v𝖾𝘭s.𝖼𝘰𝘮

But when I opened my eyes on Sunday morning, the sheets beside me were still flat and undisturbed, cool and stripped of any warmth.

I looked up at the ceiling and let out a faint, self-ridiculing breath.

I was so pathetic. The mate bond would be severed tomorrow. He had already stomped on my pride, yet here I was, still clinging to the hope that he might give me something.

But I had loved Ethan for far too long.

From the unstable, brooding man trapped in a wheelchair to the untouchable Alpha he had grown into, I had remained beside him through the worst years of his life. We had slept in the same bed for three years, and somewhere in all that time, I had given him my whole heart. How was I supposed to accept it ending like this?

I stayed there for a long while before finally forcing myself upright.

Using my crutch for support, I slowly hauled myself toward the balcony.

The sun was beautiful today, and its warmth spread across my skin, but it could not thaw the cold buried inside me.

Tomorrow was Monday.

Once the bond was rejected, just as we had agreed, we might still have to stay under the same roof for a while so Harold’s condition wouldn’t worsen.

But by then, whatever bound Ethan and me together would be gone for good.

With nothing left between us, he could bring Ivy home in the open and parade their closeness right before my eyes.

And I would have no right to protest, not even the right to feel jealous.

The thought alone made it hard to breathe. I didn’t want to turn into some resentful woman lurking in the background, forced to watch someone else’s happiness.

Just then, my phone buzzed with a message from Frank.

“Lianne, you said you’d stay in touch more, but you’ve been quiet lately. My mom’s been asking about you for quite a while.”

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