Chapter 16
Sierra stopped in her tracks but didn’t turn around.
Chase hurried up beside her, blocking her path, his voice raw.
“Why did you leave without saying anything? Why didn’t you tell me you applied to this school? Do you have any idea what the last four years have been like for me?”
Why was she so composed, so unaffected, while he’d been drowning in the memories?
Every night, he dreamed of the past.
Their fingers entwined under the desk in class.
Their first kiss, behind the track field.
The promises they whispered about the future-the college life they’d planned together.
He remembered it all.
Why did it feel like only he remembered?
He couldn’t understand how someone who once loved him so deeply could walk away like it meant nothing.
Like he had never mattered at all.
He looked into her eyes and demanded, “Did you ever actually care about me? Or was I just some passing distraction? We were supposed to go to Columbia together-why didn’t you tell me anything?!”
But Sierra didn’t flinch.
Her voice was steady, her eyes calm.
“My life has nothing to do with you. And vice versa.”
Those words hit like a dagger.
Chase instinctively reached for her wrist. “So that’s it? You were just playing around? You never meant to stay?”
“We made a plan. You promised.”
Sierra didn’t even blink.
Four years had tempered her. She no longer wore her heart on her sleeve.
What was over, was over. There was no point reopening wounds.
“We’re adults now. No one owes anyone anything. And Columbia was your dream. Not mine.”
That shut him up.
He stumbled for a moment, then changed the subject.
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“How… how have you been these last four years?”
“I came to the campus every year, trying to see you. But I wasn’t allowed in. I sent you hundreds of messages-nothing
ever came back.”
She looked at him coolly, arms folded around the phone box.
“This is a government-run institute. Outside contact is restricted.”
That was her answer.
He still couldn’t let it go.
“Then why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you let me be part of your plans? Was I never part of your future at all?”
Sierra frowned.
She didn’t understand how he had the nerve to ask that.
He was the one who’d confessed to Maddie.
The one who told her he liked her.
And now he wanted to act like none of that happened?
Her patience snapped.
“If you have nothing else to say, go review the course materials for next week.”
With that, she turned and walked off.
Running into Chase had been unexpected. Learning that he came for her had been even more surprising.
But what was done was done.
She had no intention of looking back.
Especially not for someone who couldn’t keep his heart in one place.
What she didn’t know was that after that night at the bar, Chase had completely cut Maddie off.
Once he realized how he truly felt, no amount of Maddie’s apologies could change his mind.
They spent four years in the same city and never saw each other once.
Maddie tried to reach out under the guise of needing help, but Chase always replied the same:
“To avoid misunderstandings, it’s best if you ask someone else. I’m not available.”
Eventually, Maddie gave up.
Now, as Chase watched Sierra’s back retreating into the crowd, a wave of sour emotion crashed over him. Chapter16
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They were finally in the same place again.
And yet, it felt like they were miles apart.
Her cold indifference shattered him.
He turned to leave.
But then he froze.
Another guy had walked up beside Sierra.
He casually took the box from her arms, laughing softly at something she said.
They looked… natural.
Comfortable.
Like how Chase and Sierra used to be in high school.
Like what he’d lost.
Forever.
