Chapter 192

192 Hollowed Heart

Martha

The moment Darian and Lucian left, I stayed motionless on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I’d left the door open on purpose, just in case Vander walked by and saw what he’d done. What he’d broken.

He shattered me.

He didn’t raise a hand. He didn’t need to. His silence, his judgment, that was worse.

I’d loved him from the beginning. Every word, every step, every sacrifice, mine. But it had never been enough. Not for a man who kept comparing me to a ghost. He never stopped measuring me against his dead wife. Every time I failed to match her imaginary perfection, he reminded me.

And so I turned my bitterness toward Lucian. I know that now. I shouldn’t have, but I did.