Sad

Chapter 72

Two days later, Lily stared listlessly out the window of her dad's beach house, hugging her arms tightly around her middle.

The picturesque seaside vista spread out before her normally filled her with serene tranquility. But not today. Today, the crashing waves and windswept dunes only seemed to mirror the turmoil raging inside her heart.

She felt hollowed out, numb. Like someone had carved out her very soul, leaving a gaping emptiness in its wake. No matter how tightly she tried to hold herself together, invisible fissures kept splintering wider with each passing hour apart from James.

God, just thinking his name made her want to shatter into a million pieces.

How could the man she loved more than life itself have done this to her? Maintained such a profound, insidious deception for so long? Lily kept revisiting that awful folder filled with evidence of his betrayal, searching in vain for some hint she'd missed, some explanation that could make it all make sense.

But ther