Sleep didn't come easily.
Not that night.
Ethan lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, the darkness pressing in around him.
But it wasn't the darkness that bothered him.
It was her.
Nora.
Her voice.
Her face.
Her eyes.
"You rejected me, remember?"
He exhaled sharply, turning onto his side.
Why was this getting to him?
He had moved on.
He chose to move on.
So why did it feel like something unfinished was clawing at him?
He closed his eyes—
And the memory came anyway.
The church.
The silence.
The look on her face.
He had expected anger.
Maybe even desperation.
But what he saw instead…
Was pain.
Pure. Unfiltered pain.
His chest tightened.
Ethan sat up abruptly, running a hand over his face.
"This is stupid," he muttered.
She wasn't right for him.
She didn't fit his world.
She wasn't—
His thoughts stopped again.
Because now…
She did.
More than anyone else.
And that realization hit harder than he expected.