Chapter 1
I stood at the doorway, barbaring myself by listening in the conversation inable,
The gift. I’d brought for Caleb Moore was crushed in my hands, enmpletely out of shape. But the voices kept going
They talked back and forth, discessing Caleb’s feelings for try Chandler.
Carb didn’t say a word the entire time.
Not until the room went quiet. Then his voice moke the silence, filled with regret.
in
“Ivy’s based with Ethan Harper, I have to clear every obstacle for her.”
Turns out, in Caleb’s eyes, I was just an obstacle.
Something in the way of lvy’s happiness,
I stared at the photo album in my hands, feeling deed.
Thad spent nearly three years working on this gift for him.
Every month, Caleb would bring me a bouquet of flowers.
Every single time, without fil
Jused to roll my eyes and ask, “Other guys give roses when they’re trying to impress a girl. Why is it always sunflowers with you?”
He never gave me an answer.
Not until one night when he’d had too much to drink. He pressed his face into my palm, his eyes red like he’d just been crying.
“Grace,” he said, voice soft, “I want your world to be like a sunflower. Always facing the sun, with no shadow insight”
At first, only said yes to Caleb’s pursuit to spite Exhain,
I wanted to show him that even without him, someone could love me just as deeply.
But right now, my heart was pounding so hard it hurt
After that night, every time Caleb gave me sunflowers, td quietly save the brightest one, dry it, and press it into the pages of that photo album
The album
um was packed with memories of us. In every photo, I was smiling so brightly.
Just like Caleb said, my world with him felt free of shadows
But reality slapped me in the face. What Caleb and I had wasn’t love. It was all a lie.
Suddenly, a thought struck.
My hands shook as I locked my phone and unblocked Ethan Harper. I pulled up his profile.
The Ethan knew was long gone from his feed.
Instead, it was filled with pictures of him and Ivy–smiling happy, and perfect.
I kept strolling. And then I found it. A video from these years ago.
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Ditched My Toxic Dun for a Blaire Upgrade!
Chapter
In the video, Ivy stood in the middle of a sundimeer flest beaming at the tamera.
hope all my friends‘ lives can be like sunflowers,” she said, “always foring the sun, with no shadow in right.
Tears blurred my vision, falling hard onto my hands.
Sorven the sunflowers were mine to begin with
Why had Caleb gotten drunk that night? Why had he cried?
Was it because I stood in the way of his friendship with hy?
I couldn’t keep thinking about it.
The more I thought, the more I felt like a jok
Ten years with Exhan
Three years with Caleb.
And I couldn’t even compare to hy.
I stumbled out of the hotel, my carefully done makeup ruined by tears, leaving me ass no one could bear to look at.
People on the street gave me curious glances, but I ignored them
My hands trembled as I dialed a number I hadn’t used in years
The phone rang and ring before it was finally picked up
“HeDo?”
The voice was so familiar, yet it felt distant. And just like that, I broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Landon 1 want to come home.”
