All Chapters of You Lost Me When You Found Her: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The first thing Daniel did was take the speaker out of the box and place it on the grass. Then he looked at the twelve dancers standing around him and asked, "Who wants to go first?" Nobody answered. Tessa glanced at the others, the boys suddenly found interesting things to examine on the ground, and Mia shifted closer to me. I almost laughed. They had been willing to dance in front of one another inside the studio, but standing in an open field where strangers could pass by and watch them was apparently a different matter.Daniel didn't pressure them. Instead, he picked up a small ball from the grass and tossed it toward Tessa. She caught it awkwardly."Walk to that tree and come back," he said, pointing across the field.Tessa stared at him. "That's it?""That's it.""Why?""Because you're asking too many questions."The others laughed, and even Tessa smiled. She handed the ball back and started walking. Halfway across the field, a group of children ran past her, and she immediately

I didn't answer Adrian's message that afternoon. By the time I got home, I had convinced myself that ignoring him was the right decision. I placed my phone on the kitchen counter, made myself something to eat and tried to focus on anything that didn't involve him. For almost twenty minutes, it worked, until my phone lit up again with another message: I'm not asking you to forgive me. I just need you to hear me. I stared at the words for a long time because that was the problem with Adrian. He had always known how to make his requests sound reasonable, even when those requests came at the worst possible time. He could make me feel guilty for refusing something that had once cost me so much.I turned the phone face down, hoping that would be enough to end the conversation. A few minutes later, it rang. I knew who it was before I looked at the screen and let the call ring until it ended. When it rang again, I picked it up."Hello?"For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then I heard his voi

I tried not to think about the photograph for the rest of the day, but every time Adrian's name crossed my mind, I saw the younger version of him standing somewhere behind the man I had known. It was strange how one old picture could make someone feel unfamiliar again. I had spent years believing I knew Adrian better than anyone, yet there were entire pieces of his life I had never thought to ask about. Maybe that was because when we were together, I had been too focused on the parts of him that affected me to wonder who he had been before I came along.By the time I got home, curiosity had won. I opened my laptop and searched for the Hartwell Summer Programme, hoping I might find something about the old volunteer teams. There were photographs from previous years, short articles about the foundation and a few archived event reports, but nothing that explained why Adrian had been there. I was about to close the page when I noticed another photograph from one of the summer programmes. I

I didn't read the letter immediately. My fingers remained on the folded paper while Adrian watched me from across the table. Around us, the café carried on as though nothing had changed. Cups clinked against saucers, quiet conversations filled the room, and someone laughed near the counter, but everything felt strangely distant. I had spent years believing the past was something I had already survived, and now I was holding a piece of it that Adrian had kept hidden all this time."Are you sure you want me to read it?" I asked.Adrian nodded. "It's yours."I looked down at the envelope. "You kept this for years. Why?"He was quiet for a moment before answering. "Because there was a time when that letter was the only version of myself I didn't hate."The answer caught me off guard. I slowly unfolded the paper and began to read.Elena,I don't know if I'll ever give you this, so maybe I'm writing it for myself. You probably don't even know how often I think about you, which is probably a

I stared at Adrian, waiting for him to explain what he meant. The café suddenly felt smaller, as though the walls had moved closer around us. Only a few minutes earlier, I had been trying to understand his regret, but now Christopher had opened another door to a past I hadn't known existed.What did Christopher know?Adrian didn't answer immediately. He looked down at the table, running his thpumb slowly along the edge of his coffee cup. When he finally spoke, his voice was quieter than before."Elena, there are things about that period of my life that I should have told you a long time ago."Then tell me now.He lifted his eyes to mine. "After I left school, I didn't disappear because I stopped caring about you."My chest tightened.You've said that already."I know. But I've never told you what happened before I came back."I remained silent."After my family moved, everything became complicated. Lucas was sick, my father was dealing with problems at the company, and suddenly I was