Semua Bab In the name of vows: Bab 81 - Bab 85

Chapter 82Christine Christine’s boots clicked softly on the wooden floor as she stepped into the lake house. The place was all too familiar. The walls smelled faintly of pine and old wood, the kind of smell that pulled memories forward before she was ready for them. Her arms were crossed over her chest, not to keep warm, but to keep herself steady. She was here for one reason only that was answers. Not forgiveness. Not reconciliation. Answers.The room was dim, lit by the dying embers of the fire Adrian had carefully prepared. He stood near the fireplace, his posture rigid but his face softer than she remembered. He looked up when she entered, and for a moment, the years they had known each other, the years of friendship and tension and love, pressed into the space between them.“Christine,” he said quietly, almost as if saying her name alone could make everything right.She didn’t answer. Instead, she let her eyes travel across the room, noticing the way he had arranged the chairs,

Chapter 84Christine’s povChristine stepped off the train and felt the city swallow her whole. The familiar hum of traffic, the low chatter of people on the sidewalks, the smell of wet sand and early coffee all this should have felt comforting. It didn’t. Instead, it left a hollow ache in her chest. The emptiness she had carried since leaving the lake house felt sharper here, where every building and street corner reminded her of him.She hugged her coat closer around her, though the weather was mild. Her mind replayed every word from their conversation from the confession to the truths, the pain in his eyes, and the weight of her own. She had come seeking answers and had received them. But answers didn’t undo hurt. They didn’t erase betrayal. They didn’t make her trust him again.In thst lake house she has almost let her guard down and wanted them to go back to how they were before everything but she couldn’t still get past the betrayal and the lack of trust in her in not allowing h