Chapter 44. Moving Forward

2024

Amelia’s POV

Adrian didn’t come back.

I don’t know what the hell I expected.

Maybe a part of me thought that he would return eventually, knock on the door and I’d open it, and watch him slip back into the room like nothing happened. Maybe I thought that we would have an awkward, half-hearted conversation about how we shouldn’t have done that before pretending it never happened.

But he never came back.

And the worst part? I waited.

Not intentionally, of course. I didn’t sit by the door like some abandoned puppy. But I felt it. Every time I turned in bed, every time I glanced at the door, every time I heard a sound in the hallway and thought, maybe that’s him.

But it never was.

I tried convincing myself that this was good. That his leaving was the best possible outcome. It wasn’t like last night meant anything, right? It was just a lapse in judgment, an old habit rearing its head—nothing more. We were two people