Because believing that had been easier than believing someone could love you and still destroy you.
The pain of that belief surged through me now, sudden and merciless, piercing my chest so sharply it stole my breath.
I had lost the very thing I used to live for.
That loss had shaped me in ways I was still discovering.
I opened my eyes and looked at the pages one last time, at the smudged ink and uneven lines and the evidence of tears that had fallen long after I was gone.
The truth did not absolve him.
But it freed me from the question that had haunted me for years.
And that, somehow, felt like the beginning of something else entirely.
Chapter 68
Claire
Summer vacation started with a four-hour drive, a cooler wedged between our feet, and Lily singing off-key in the backseat with complete confidence. Bill and Emma had begged off at the last minute, all gentle smiles and vague excuses about errands and aching joints. They’d tried to make it sound casual. I didn’t buy it for a second. If anything, they were smiling too much, watching us too closely, like this had gone exactly the way they’d hoped.
“Go,” Emma had said, waving us off. “You kids have fun.”
Kids. Right.
The beach was already warm when we finally arrived, the air salty and thick, the parking lot buzzing with families and coolers and umbrellas. Lily vibrated with excitement the entire walk to the changing rooms, narrating every shell she spotted on the path like it was a discovery of historical importance.
When I came out, tugging my cover-up into place and scanning the crowd for them, I found Ethan immediately.
He’d already changed.
I had a second to register that he must have stripped down under his clothes because now he was standing there in swim shorts, skin bronzed and familiar and unfairly gorgeous, the sun catching on his shoulders like it knew what it was doing. He looked relaxed in a way that still startled me sometimes, easy in his body, smiling at something.
And then I noticed the girls.
They were hovering. Two of them, maybe three, all early twenties and confident in that way you are when you are young and beautiful. They approached him with boldness, one of them touching his arm.
I felt something sharp and unreasonable twist in my chest.
I had no real claim on him. We were taking things slow. I knew that. I had no right to feel this attached. And still, some part of me felt vindicated just watching the scene unfold, like my instincts had been right not to fully trust how charming he could be.
Lily tugged my hand, pulling me forward, and that was when we heard him.
“I’m sorry,” Ethan was saying easily, not unkind. “But I’m here with my family.”
Family.
As if he sensed us, he turned then, flashing that devastating smile like he knew exactly what he was doing.
“There are my girls,” he announced, and scooped Lily up without breaking stride.
The girls froze. One of them flushed immediately.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “We didn’t know you had a girlfriend.”
They retreated fast, apologies tumbling over each other as they escaped, and I didn’t even get the chance to correct them.
Not that I tried.
