CHAPTER 97 - Stop and Listen

Ryan As I settled into the desk chair in my dorm room, I watched Whitney perch on the edge of my bed, her wavy brown hair cascading over her shoulders. Her warm brown eyes, usually sparkling with mischief, were now clouded with pain. It had been over a month since we really, really talked, and I could see the toll her breakup with Liam had taken on her. "I just don't understand, Lyra," Whitney began, her voice quivering with suppressed emotion. Her fingers fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, a nervous habit she couldn't seem to shake. "I thought Liam and I had something real. He made me believe that we were meant to be mates, that our bond was unbreakable." She paused, taking a shaky breath as she tried to compose herself. "But now, it's like none of that even mattered to him. He threw it all away like it was nothing." She paused, her gaze drifting to the window as if seeking answers in the distant horizon. The fading light of the setting sun matching the yellowish pallor of her ski