Chapter 16
The truth was, he’d fallen for Lena a long time ago.
When she told him–one last time–that she didn’t love him.
When she vanished without a trace.
When he searched her room and found every love letter, every portrait she’d ever given him, gone.
When he tracked her to Engloria and saw her with another man.
And when she finally got engaged.
Somewhere along the way, without even realizing it, he’d fallen for the girl who had always chased after him.
And like an idiot, he’d buried those feelings, convinced himself they were something else. Suppressed them, over and over–only for them to claw their way back, stronger each time.
Now, they hit all at once, sharp and merciless.
His chest tightened like a vice, the pain unbearable. For a split second, he wanted to storm inside, grab her hand, tell her- I love
you.
Admit that everything had been his fault.
Beg for a second chance.
But his feet wouldn’t move.
Snow piled onto his shoulders, but nothing was colder than the ice spreading through his chest. He could only stand there,
watching.
Watching as the girl who once loved him so desperately whispered sweet words to someone else.
And for the first time in years, he saw it—that light in her eyes.
Real happiness.
A memory crashed into him.
A long–ago rainy night.
The downpour had been just as relentless as tonight’s snow.
That night, only a single building, a single window, had separated them.
Inside, wrapped in warmth, he had been with Nicole.
