His Beautiful Lies, My Shattered World

re'

y heavy across my waist, a possessive, thoughtless weight. He was breathing deeply, lost in a dre

ch, every whispered endearment, wasn't for me. It was for her. For Aria. It was all a

f escape. I lifted his arm, millimeter by millimeter, my muscles screaming with the strain of the

the floor-to-ceiling windows cast long, distorted shadows across the room, turning familiar objects

tallic object clattered to the floor. The sound was deafening in the silence. I froze, my blood turn

d asleep, lost

d what I' d knocked over. It was his lighter. A silver Zippo, heavy and cool in

. There was an engraving on the side, one I didn't recognize. I angled it

simple "G" I

ere intertwined in an

&

el an

e, piecing together the fragments of their betrayal-overheard calls, suspicious receipts, the lingering scent

pposed beginning, and had overwritten it with the truth of his affair. He had carried their love in

rpreted everything, vanished in that instant. The love I had held for him, a love that had defined my entire adul

e; he held me in contempt. He and my sister, the two people I loved most in the world, had conspire

st nail in the coffin of my old life. There was no going back. There was no room for for

lat, empty void. The woman who had loved Gabriel Holmes was gone. In

ready to wat