Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Two— The Substitute
Zarina’s POV
I sat on the bed, holding my knees to my chest. The silence in the room was loud. Deafening. The moonlight spilled through the windows, cold and silver, but it couldn’t warm the ache in my chest.
Everything felt like a lie.
My love. My life. My place.
Because no matter how many times I told myself Asher loved me for who I was… one truth echoed louder than everything else.
I looked like her.
And maybe that was all it ever was.
The knock on the door was soft at first.
Then louder.
“Zarina,” came Asher’s voice from the other side. “Please… please open the door.”
I didn’t answer.
Not yet.
I stared at the reflection in the glass. My face. My eyes. My hair. Everything I thought made me me… was the same face another woman had.
A woman Asher loved before me.
A woman who had come back.
A woman who was never supposed to return.
When the knock came again, harder this time, I stood up slowly and walked over. My fingers trembled as I
