A Summer Without You Novels & Stories

All those moments I'd held dear for seven years. I've learned that when heartbreak reaches its peak, the pain in your chest goes numb. All that's left is a hollow, bone-deep emptiness. I turned calmly and walked away with my suitcase. My phone buzzed. It was a message from the wedding planner. [Mr. Duggan, Miss Clayman just confirmed the removal of the photo wall. Also, the vows have been revised with Dylan's input. Are you still certain you want to cancel the wedding?] I stared at the screen, then smiled faintly. I typed back: [Yes.]

The same woman whose existence had sent me running into a midnight storm a decade ago, the same woman who had unknowingly forced me to rebuild myself from nothing. It wasn't that I needed him to have left her. It was that he had let me believe, for an entire summer, that no one else existed. "Baby...?" I started again, my voice tighter than I wanted it to be. Miguel interrupted smoothly. "She won't be joining us." Angelo's brows lifted. "What happened?" Miguel's smile faltered, just barely. "We ended things." I sat there absorbing the words, my mind spinning faster than I could control.

The elders in the family are big on good omens, insisting we pick a nice date for the wedding for good luck. But after a fortune teller proposes nine potential wedding dates, Edward Colton turns every single one down. It's the tenth time now. Edward shakes his head yet again. I gaze at his handsome face and blurt out, "I think this date is perfect." Edward is busy scrolling through messages in his group chat, not even bothering to glance up at me. "This date won't work. Jolene and the others just mentioned they want to go to Hallibay for vacation. Turn down your mom's suggestion." I curl my fingers tight. His eyes remain fixed on his phone screen, as if he has endless conversations to t

However, that time, for the first time in my life, I argued back. “No! I am not giving up my baby no matter what! Even if I have to raise this child alone, I will never get rid of him!” I tried to run away in tears. During the struggle, I lost my footing and fell down the stairs. When I woke up, I lay in a hospital bed. The baby was gone, and Ethan was not there. There was only one message on my phone. He said an important overseas meeting had come up and that he would be away on a business trip for a few days.

She looked up, caught me smiling, and smiled. That was it. That was the moment I was done for. Twenty one years old and this is what my life had become. Locked in my room on the first week of summer, curtains drawn, laptop open, completely feral over a woman I could never have. Dad was at work. Laura was somewhere in the house being loud about it. And Nicole was always the problem.

Mitchell woke up groggily the next afternoon. The plates of spaghetti on the table had long since clumped together into an unrecognizable mess, and the floor was littered with overturned bottles of alcohol. The stifling summer heat amplified the pungent stench of stale liquor and souring food, creating an unbearable atmosphere. Yet, Mitchell seemed oblivious. He blended into the chaos of his surroundings, his hollow gaze reflecting the disarray within him. Day after day passed like this, a lifeless routine. There was still no news of Heather. Bethany, who had once loudly insisted on involving the police, had fallen strangely silent. Mitchell guessed Vanessa had made some kind of deal with he

“And thank you for everything you do. I hope Miss Sylvia doesn’t hate me already?” “I can’t really say.” Tessa laughed. That made me laugh. I’d missed her. “Is Summer here?” “She left around five this morning,” Tessa replied. “Everything okay?” “Yeah. Absolutely.” It was a lie. I hated lying to her. But I had no choice. “I’ll see you at Sunny, yeah?” “Yeah,” I said dryly. “Can’t miss it.” When I returned to my place, frustration consumed me. Summer clearly ran away because she was scared. After everything we agreed to do this morning, she ran.

Her gaze swept across the documents piling up on Amelia’s desk. “After the summit that day, Christopher seemed to have vanished from the face of earth. Did he not come looking for you?” Amelia took a sip of the iced coffee, the cold liquid sliding down her throat and masking that strange feeling in the depths of her heart. She nodded. “He never contacted me and never appeared before me after that.” Winona sat down in the chair opposite her and looked at her calm side profile. She couldn’t help but ask, “What about Evelyn? Did she not ask about her father?”

I looked up, and under the shade of the trees, he stood quietly—tall and composed—but his face was hidden in shadow. It was summer, and the cicadas buzzed noisily in the background. It suddenly brought me back to the end of the video I had seen in the theater. He had been sitting there, hands clenched tightly together, saying, “Sadie, I want you to be happy.” Even now, I couldn’t forget those words. So, I answered him, “Because someone wants me to be happy.”

At 3:00 AM, the biting cold wind howled through the mountain fields, where countless unmarked graves lay scattered across the land. Eloise shivered, her voice trembling with unease. "Couldn't we have done this tomorrow? Why did it have to be tonight? Don't you find this place scary?" Gavin's tone remained flat, his voice cutting through the cold night air. "Isn't there a hotel or inn near the gravesite?" Eloise scoffed, "Look around. We're in the middle of nowhere. Do you really think there's anything out here?"