Chapter 13

The air was filled with the soft cooing of pigeons, their wings fluttering against the bright blue sky. Children’s laughter rang through the square, pure and unburdened, a stark contrast to the silence stretching between us.

For a long time, I didn’t speak. Then, finally, I turned to Atlas.

“You don’t deserve to stay by my side, Atlas,” 1 said. “Nothing you have belongs to me. It belongs to Ivy. Wasn’t that what you intended all along?”

His face stiffened, but I didn’t stop.

“I’ve spent years living in the illusion you created, believing every lie you fed me,” I continued, my words as steady as my heartbeat. “Do you have any idea how much I hated myself when I finally saw the truth?”

His fingers twitched slightly, his entire body unmoving.

I let out a slow breath, my expression unreadable. “I hated myself for loving you.”

I let the words sink in, let them twist through the air like a blade cutting deep. “I hated myself for loving the man who destroyed everything I had.”

Atlas flinched, barely perceptible, but I caught it.

And just like that, the last remnants of anger drained from my body. I looked at the face I had known for twenty years. The man who had shared my bed for five.

And suddenly–there was no more hatred left in me.

in every life, there was a person meant to wound you so deeply that

down at him. A soft, detached smile curved my lips, but it never

voice light, almost gentle. “I

summer sun beat down on us, but

as his lips parted slightly, then curled into something almost pitiful. “Celeste,” he whispered, “but I love you. I really, truly love you.”

voice was so quiet, carried away by the wind before it

lifted my camera, turning away from him, capturing the smiles of strangers–the joy of those who had never known the kind of pain I had endured.

a bench, his face

picture for us?” A small, excited voice

22:33

Years of Love,

73.5%

Chapter 13

crown while his sister giggled beside him, reaching up to place

across my lips for the first

said, raising

shutter clicked, freezing their innocence in time. And just for a moment,

ago.

had woven a tiny grass bracelet and slipped it onto my wrist, his eyes full of childish devotion

you, Celeste. I

had been no lies in his

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