Chapter 64

• I didn’t want to wake up.
• For a moment, those soft few seconds before consciousness took over, I let myself believe none of it had happened. That there had been no knock on the door, no late-night confession, no engagement announcement wrapped in silence and control. In that half-sleep haze, I almost believed the affection in his voice was real, that I wasn’t just a role in his well-orchestrated drama.
• But the weight in my chest reminded me.