Chapter 173 Hundred And Seventy Three

• ARIEL’S POV
• I couldn’t go back home. Not after the way Ryan had looked at me, not after the words he’d thrown at me like knives cutting through my chest. I couldn’t sit in that house pretending everything was fine, waiting for him to change his mind. He had made it clear he didn’t believe me. He didn’t believe in us. And that hurt more than anything.
• So my feet carried me to the one place I hadn’t gone in years, my mother's house. The small rundown building stood at the edge of town like it always had, and for a moment, I thought maybe she wouldn’t be there. Maybe she would still be hiding, running, like she always said she had to. But when I pushed the door open, the scent of food hit me, warm and strong, and I froze.