Chapter 73

Warning: Depression, suicidal thoughts and behavior. Please proceed with care.

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LACEY

I’m so tired.

Not the kind of tired sleep can fix.

The kind that lives in your bones. That never goes away. That makes it hard to even breathe sometimes.

I woke up alone in the suite Céline and I share. For a second, I felt relief. She wasn’t there. No cheerful morning voice. No forced hugs. Just silence.

I love Céline. I really do. She’s been my light, my anchor, the only person who stayed when the rest of the world turned its back.

But sometimes… I wish she’d let me drown.

Let me slip under. Let me disappear.

Because this version of me?

The one left behind after the divorce?

I don’t recognize her.

I used to laugh so easily. I used to fill rooms. Now I can barely fill a bed. I lay there for hours, staring at the ceiling, hoping something—anything—will come and end this feeling. This heaviness. This quiet pain t