Chapter 16

EMILIA

“To give him his own invitation. Maybe he can bring his actual girlfriend as a plus one.”

Ah.

The word lodges in my throat, and the tightness in my chest finally makes sense.

Of course.

Of course he didn’t come here for me.

I was so desperate for comfort and some semblance of affection that I…

God, I feel stupid for even considering, for even hoping—for that brief, fleeting second—that this visit was about us. That somewhere beneath all the cruelty there was a reason for the tenderness, too.

That I still meant something.

But no. It was always about Liam.

It’s always about Liam.

Zane watches me expectantly, like my silence is an overreaction he didn’t expect. Like this should be simple.

I wonder how he can do it. Look at me and not see everything we had. Was it that easy to let go of an entire decade of love and affection?

Was I that hard to love? That easy to move on from?

That easy to forget?