Chapter 53

Lyra

“It was just once.”

That’s what she said.

Those exact words.

And I swear—for a second—I didn’t even feel my body anymore. I was outside myself, hovering somewhere above the chaos like a rejected angel watching my life burn in real time. I blinked. My ears rang. My soul detached. I was standing there in heels and heartbreak, in the middle of a party I didn’t even want, and my best friend just looked me in the eye and said it was just once.

Once.

Like that somehow made it better.

Like that made the dick smaller. The betrayal softer. The memory less soul-crushing.

I stared at her.

I stared so long and so hard my vision blurred.

“You fucked him.”

My voice cracked. Not because I was confused. But because I was confirming it out loud for the first time. My brain needed my mouth to say it so it could finally accept that this nightmare was real.

“You… fucked him.”

Tasha flinched, eyes wide, face pale l