Chapter: 1625

Alone in her room, Laney wrestled with the gnawing doubt eating away at her peace of mind. Was it her inability to be there for Cliff, or had his heart never truly been hers from the beginning? The questions tormented her. If she meant nothing to him, why pursue a relationship?

Why whisk her away on that memorable trip? Yet, if his feelings were genuine, how could he bear this distance between them?

With trembling fingers, Laney pored over their photo album, desperate to decode the truth hidden in Cliff's expressions. Every image showed them in perfect harmony, but the longer she studied them, the more her heart felt like a hollow drum. Her strength ebbed away until she could no longer lift the pages.

After letting her turbulent emotions settle like sediment in still water, Laney steeled herself and dialed Cliff's number.

The rings echoed through the void, each one more distant than the last, making her feel like a stranger in her own story.