Chuck's breathing caught hard in his throat like someone had punched the air right out of him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The words came out broken and almost disbelieving, barely more than a rasp. He stared at Noelle, waiting for the laugh, waiting for the 'just kidding,' waiting for any sign that this was another cruel game, but it never came.
His chest tightened so painfully it felt like his ribs might crack. The woman he had loved for years. The woman whose hand he had held through every hard season.
The woman whose soft words he had believed without question. She was standing there admitting that the love he felt for her had been manufactured, forced into him by magic like he was nothing more than a puppet.
His stomach turned over hard. Memories slammed through him one after another, every smile she had given him, every kiss, every quiet night he had believed something real lived between them.
