Chapter 23
Lyra
A thousand scenarios ran through my mind, each one more ridiculous than the last. Maybe he got dragged into a conversation he couldn’t escape. Maybe he’d decided to escape the chaos altogether. Maybe he was just…
I stood frozen for a second, staring at the waves as they lapped against the shore. My mind was a chaotic mess. Roman wouldn’t. Would he?
It wasn’t as if we were in a real commitment. This whole thing was a farce, a carefully curated performance for mutual benefit. But we’d agreed to exclusivity, hadn’t we? This was still supposed to be something. And on Valentine’s Day of all days, our first together—even if it was fake.
But then again, Roman was a man. A man cut from the same cloth as Ethan, wasn’t he?
The thought stung more than I cared to admit, and befor
