جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 70

SEBASTIAN’S POV. “I’m so sorry, Maya. But I’m not letting you end this. We either go back inside there and tell Luisa that we’re together….or we find another solution to this. But no, you’re not leaving me. Not now, not ever,”I meant it…every damn word.I didn’t care what it’ll take or cost me.All I knew was that I wasn’t letting Maya go.“How can you even say this?…how can we hurt Luisa more, despite her being hurt already?” Maya said.I ran my hands through my hair again.God. I didn’t know what else to do.I knew this day would come.I’d imagined it several times…I’d imagined it every time we made love. After the way my body would burn with need even as my mind begged me to stop. After I remembered all the reasons we shouldn’t keep letting this happen….reasons that had nothing to do with desire and everything to do with consequences.And I’d imagined it when I caught myself staring at her a little too long…moments where I wondered what my life would look like if she ever dec

MAYA’S POV.“I am helplessly in love with Maya.”For a second, I forgot how to breathe.The words went through me like a blade.I stared at Sebastian, my eyes widening as my heart seemed to stop inside my chest.Why would he say that?Why would he say it now?I could barely bring myself to look at my best friend.But when I did, my heart shattered. She looked completely broken.Not angry or shocked like she was earlier. Just… broken.Her lips parted slightly, but she couldn’t say anything.“Luisa…” I whispered.She finally looked at me.And something in her expression told me everything I needed to know.She didn’t want an explanation or another excuse.She looked tired and fed up.“Get out.”My heart stopped.“What?” I whispered breathlessly.“Get out of my house, Maya.”Her voice was quiet.Too quiet.I took a step toward her.“Luisa, please….”She lifted a trembling finger to stop me and I stopped immediately.Tears were streaming down her face, but she didn’t wipe them anymore.“Y

MAYA’S POV.Three weeks later:My bedroom looked like a stranger had torn through it.Open suitcases covered the floor.Clothes were scattered across the bed.Shoes sat beside the closet, waiting to be packed.My passport rested on the nightstand beside my phone.I stood in the middle of the mess, staring at everything I had spent years collecting.My life.Or at least, the life I was leaving behind.I folded another sweater and placed it inside the suitcase.Then stopped.For a moment, I just stared at it.Three weeks.That was how long it had been since I last saw Luisa.Three weeks since she told me that she hated me and that she never wanted to see me again.Three weeks since I watched my best friend close a door between us.And she never opened it again.Not once.I had tried.I sent messages…I called… I even went to her house once, but the guards wouldn’t even let me in.Eventually, Luisa stopped responding altogether.Then, two weeks ago, she transferred to another school.Appa

DANIEL’S POV.“Tell me what?”My voice came out quieter than I intended, like even my words were scared of what they might trigger.Mrs. Hellen hesitated, she looked at me with an expression I couldn’t understand.Almost as if she was trying to decide how gently she could deliver whatever she was about to say. Like if she used the right tone, the truth would hurt a little less.Then she finally spoke.“Maya left.”I blinked once, then again, like my eyes could somehow reboot the moment.“Left?”I asked and she nodded slowly.“She left for Europe a few days ago.”For a second, I didn’t understand the sentence. My brain kept catching on the word “Europe” like it was something that couldn’t possibly apply to my life right now. Then it hit me.My fingers loosened around the bouquet before I even realized they were slipping. The sunflowers tilted dangerously in my hand, petals brushing the air, and I instinctively tightened my grip before they could fall.I forced a smile…because what e

MAYA’S POV.Six months.That was how long I’d been gone.Six months since I left the United States. Six months since I walked away from everything I’d known…every street I could navigate with my eyes half-closed, every person who’d been part of my life like they were stitched into my days.And somehow… life had continued.Not perfectly. Not painlessly. But it kept moving, like it refused to pause just because I wanted it to.I got used to waking up in a city where I still occasionally got lost. I got used to the trains being packed in the mornings, people moving around me with coffee in one hand and their phones in the other, everyone seemingly knowing exactly where they were going.I got used to the bakery near my apartment…how I could grab something small before work and pretend that routine was the same thing as peace. I got used to the rain appearing out of nowhere and ruining whatever plans I’d made for my hair. I got used to walking home after work just because I liked watchin