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Chapter 93: The Kindness That Cuts

Author: Claire Lemaire
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-07-27 08:51:26

Three months. Three months of Michael’s careful smiles, his thoughtful gestures, the specific art book he’d tracked down because I mentioned it once, the perfect pulla he brought on rainy Sundays, the way he always listened, truly listened, when I talked about the light on the water or Aino’s latest crayon masterpiece. Three months of being his girlfriend.

The word still felt foreign on my tongue.

Girlfriend.

He’d asked me under the soft glow of lanterns strung across a harbourside terrace, the Baltic whispering below. His eyes, those calm sea-grey eyes, had held such earnest hope. "Lila," he’d said, his hand warm over mine, "these past weeks, they've meant a great deal to me. Would you...would you consider being my girlfriend? Officially?"

And I’d said yes. Not because my heart leaped, not because a flush of certainty warmed me. I’d said yes because it felt like the next step. The logical progression in the narrative of moving on. He was kind. He was safe. He respected my art and my
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