Rule Number Twelve ofAdeline’s Guide to Overcoming Loneliness:Adeline, make peace with the past. A lot has happened, and that’s fine. Sometimes, you feel lonely because you’re still holding onto pain from the past, and you can’t move forward if you’re always looking back. Turn to face the past, not to live in it, but to understand it. Write a letter to those people from the past, whether it’s an apology, a goodbye, or a thank-you. Close that door, Adeline, be brave. Be smart.
Vivienne St. Claire.
Standing there in all her glory, her red hair swept back like a crown. With all the fame in the world, her well-deserved success. She’s every bit the star she was destined to become.
Vivienne St. Claire was an old acquaintance. Not exactly a friend, but a friendly face. One I had seen a few times over the years when Arion was still around.
Arion.
Even thinking his name is like opening an unhealed wound. It’d been so long, and that wound still hadn’t gotten easier to bear. It had left scars, and those scars ached long after the original pain had faded.
Arion Hayes wasn’t just a friend. He wasmy best friend. The kind of person who makes everything better just by existing. He made me laugh when I thought I couldn’t. He saw me, really saw me, in a way no one else had.
I met him through Mason, of all people.
Mason’s friend first, but mine soon after. He had this knack for making everyone feel like they belonged, like they were the most important person in the room. And somehow, despite all of his charm and grins, he always chose to spend his time with me. I don’t think I ever stopped being surprised by that.
And now he’s gone.
It doesn’t matter how many times I remind myself, it still feels like a punch to the gut every time. I remember the day I found out. I’d called him, just like I always did, and instead of his voice, I got his mum.
“Ari?”
“Honey, this isn’t Arion, this is his mother.”
Since when did his mother start taking calls for him?
“Could you please pass him the phone if he’s around, it’s very urgent —”
“Adeline.”
I pause when I hear the urgency—no, the pure agony in her tone.
“What happened?”
“Oh Addie, baby…”
Gone.
How do you even begin to understand that word when it’s applied to someone like Arion? Someone so full of life it didn’t seem possible he could just… stop? I couldn’t bring myself to go to the funeral. I couldn’t face it, like a coward. I just couldn’t facehimnot being there.
And now, here’s Vivienne, who was completely tied to it all. To Mason, to Arion. All of it. Seeing her, I don’t just see her—I see Arion.
I see the ice cream trips, the late-night walks, the rehearsals she had dragged he and I to.
We were never that close, Vivienne and me.
But now, watching her in the company of Kai Steele and his father, she looks like she was always meant to be here.
I feel the sting of shame and defeat tugging at my heart. Shame because, despite my best efforts to create a better life for myself and my sisters, the reality of our situation is… not so good. Defeat because I knew there would never be a life for me if there wasn’t a life for my sisters. And maybe the college will keep us going for a bit. But what will happen after?
“I’m sorry. I’m going now,” I say, my voice shaky as I turn to Liam and Christian.
But before I can disappear into the crowd, I hear Lilia’s voice.
“Addie?What are you doing here?”
Seems to be the question of the night, doesn’t it?
