It spilled through her heart like an unwelcome guest, illuminating the remnants of a night that had left her hollow. Mara sat on the edge of her bed, the sheets tangled around her like the thoughts in her mind.
Ethan's words echoed in her ears, each syllable a dagger twisting deeper into her chest. His desperation, his pleas, his tears, they haunted her.
She pressed her palms against her eyes, as if she could rub away the memories, but they clung to her like shadows.
"I love him, Ethan."
She had said it. The words had tasted like ash on her tongue, but they were true. Weren't they?
Her heart was a battlefield, torn between the past and the present. Ethan had been her world once, the center of her universe. But that universe had collapsed, and she had built a new one from the rubble.
And yet…
She rose from the bed, her movements mechanical. In the mirror, she barely recognized the woman staring back at her. Her eyes were rimmed with red, her lips pressed into a thin line.
