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Because he did not exist.

“What are you talking about?” he cried. He didn’t understand what had happened, what she meant. All he knew was that the open adoration he had seen in her eyes before—the emotion he had hoped was love—was gone.

He wanted to explain the job offer, for her to be excited and obnoxious as she celebrated with magical fireworks. He wanted to kiss her, for them to hold on to each other, for everything to be okay—but she was looking at him with so much … hate.

Beneath, he saw a deep hurt.

A pain he was the cause of, but he didn’t know why. He was about to ask when her eyes went blank. All the emotion gone from her countenance.

A wall went up, and her expression was unbothered.

She released a short breath, as if she were irritated with herself.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, no longer yelling. Her dark eyes were cold. “You’re leaving anyway, so leave already.”

He flinched as if slapped. She wanted him to leave?

She wanted to wash her hands of him, just like everyone else.

But no—that couldn’t be true. She was Lucy, his Luce.

“You don’t mean that,” he said, voice cracking.

Ask me to stay, he wanted to beg. Now and forever, ask me once. Just once.

“Of course I mean it,” she said, face stony. “Just go, you were always going to anyway.”

Her voice was bitter. How could she think he would leave after the time they’d shared together? Did he really mean so little?

Apparently, he did. She waved a hand—she was dismissing him. As if he meant nothing. As if everything between them meant nothing and never would.

Pain cleaved through him, worse than anything he ever could have expected. He never should’ve opened his heart to her.

He was such a fool, thinking she felt what he did, making plans to stay, imagining a future with her, doing everything to stay when, at the end of the day, no one wanted him.

“So that’s it, then?” he asked.

She pressed her lips together. “Yes. That’s it.”

Grayson was more confused than ever. He didn’t understand where everything had gone wrong.

He watched her walk away, leaving him alone. Always alone.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Lucy

Lucy immediately started crying in the car while driving herself home.

This was good, she told herself, wiping her face. Her heart was battered and bruised, and she couldn’t bear it anymore. It was all too much. He should just go already, like he was always going to.

She never should have opened her heart to him, and neither should Charles.

“I hate him,” she told herself, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I hate him!”

But deep down, she knew hate was only a placeholder for love.

The tears came down faster as Lucy arrived home and parked in the empty driveway. Her parents weren’t home. Turning her car off, Lucy sat in the driver’s seat, unable to move. She heard the shuddering sound of her breath, heightened in the small space of the car, and the terrible sound only made her feel worse.