He Let Her Go, Then Lost His Mind

om, Hillside Vil

e pressed a lingering kiss

iam Harrison rolled

ivorce." His v

was still catch

, her gaze searching h

d for a year. The wo

h cancer. Only

the smoke curling upward

efore she dies i

ead silence fell over the

ching their shadows long against the wall. They lay

ely respond, a frown fli

an remarry in six months. Dani

, as if he were merely

d blankly at

ee to every demand he made, as if his every

had-she'd been the one chasing

s simple teena

nto adulthood, a shadow a

f her, gripping a piece of rotting wood to ward off her stepfa

and her own blood, all she could see were his hands-knuckles whit

saved h

vocably, she had

She poured everything she had int

d on her head, his touch fleeting,

and their entire relationship had been lukewarm at be

pathetic doormat, she had accepted

r entire youth, she

llen gravely ill. To fulfill his wish, t

simply took her to reg

after the registration, he held her at arm's length. Worse, she coul

re you list

distraction

this way?" she ask

uestion. "She's

ords slipped out befor

owed, a flicker of impat

onds pass before

never wanted to hurt you. We never crossed any lines. Even when I tried to give her things, she alw

y cold, each word a sha

olved with a married man and utt

a wife refusing to gi

as exactly the same as it ha

traight nose, the chisel

e started

e day "she"

this divorce?" she a

s mouth pressed into

his lip

s.

in

ould go on,

e for a

rowed, scrut

of anger crept into his tone. "You figured I nee

aze drifting back to the tw

with quick, jerky movements, and strode o

the slightest. As if the sheer hum

ew she wouldn

ways been

am

m was

eft alone in

e door he'd slam

bed for a lon

zz

ifica

d sent her

ed for he

s "That Girl" had s

to see

s profile reflected in t

soft with a tenderness she had n

Then, with a strange deta

read, "He told me he

on rainy nights? I'm not co

e real intruder. Daniela, you were just his desperate choice for a marriage

many message

p of poison, irrefutable

ways been so distant with her. She never knew

inally reached the very first message. "You should know who I am. Did you like t

laugh esc

she knew

influencer, famous on social media for her work in

, but he'd dismissed them. He insisted ther

ght have made it up hersel

. And when it did, they were always the ki

for t

he show

ed into the bottom drawer of the night

the test results she had

rying Willi

rst possi

hed onto the paper, the moisture bleedi

ed to her. What good would

d her te

illiam had used and touched the

rce would be the very last reque

r youth. Seven ye

id his kindn

would stop lo