FIFTY-THREE | RIVEN

My bedroom door closed behind me, and I fell apart. My bruised heart had endured too many hits, and it fractured, bleeding broken love upon my bed sheets as the rain fell outside.

The craggy clouds covered a curious moon, slyly peeping through their gaps whenever it found the chance. It watched as I stumbled, drunk with agony, and collapsed face-first onto my duvet. It watched as my hands raked, claw-like, against my pillows, clutching and tearing as my thoughts did at my beaten heart.

Sierra’s words had cut me, stripped my skin into ribbons and left me bare, exposed. I’d expected this, prepared for it, even, but there was nothing I could have done to ease the wave of pain as it hit.

I was confident, at least, that my Dads would leave me alone. They’d been quiet on the drive back, mulling over Sierra’s revelation. It was as though Veronica had never existed.

But every time I t