Chapter 354. All of This

Apphia’s POV

I sit on a rock under a large tree while waiting for Lily to arrive. I feel like crying with the way Nicholas left. Maybe I shouldn’t have kissed him first. Shit, I feel so horrible. However, he was enjoying it before he pulled away from me.

Lily arrives wearing a black sports bra and shorts. She walks up to me and crouches at my feet.

“Are you okay?” she asks.

“Yes,” my voice is low.

She gets up and extends her hand. I take it, and she pulls me up. We walk away from the lake but don’t head toward the castle; we climb a green hill landscape. I don’t speak. My mind is too occupied with what happened. We reach a flat land on the landscape, and I choke up. The view is incredible, and I can see the whole mountainous area, along with the lake, as Nicholas told me. And right at the center, surrounded by a few trees, is a larger, tall one tree.

“It’s lovely,” I say. I can’t see the top of the tree from down here.

“Yes, this is N