Chapter 95

Hannah

I stood there frozen, my heart sinking as Noah shook his head at me in confusion. He blinked at me, pursing his lips; this was no prank or cruel joke. He genuinely didn’t remember—just as he hadn’t remembered our meeting date.

“You don’t… You don’t remember?” I all but whispered, trying and failing to keep my voice from quivering.

Noah furrowed his brow at me and shrugged one shoulder like it was nothing. “No, I don’t,” he said. “Are you sure that was us and not one of your friends? You and Viona, maybe?”

I felt as if a knife had been twisted in my gut at those words.

No, it hadn’t been me and Viona. It had been me and Noah. Just months before our wedding. The summer that I was nineteen and he was going on twenty. It had been an incredibly hot day, too, and our families had been preparing for the annual summer picnic.

The memory of us stealing those roasted quail eggs was one I had always treasured. Years had passed, but I had never forgotten that day, not for a moment. Even now, I could still taste the sticky yolks of the eggs and feel the summer breeze on my cheek.

Meanwhile, Noah had forgotten like it was nothing more than a fleeting dream. And now he just stood there staring at me like I was nuts.

“I, um…” I froze, my throat bobbing as I swallowed hard. Words failed me then. I just felt… empty, like a puppet whose arms were hanging dumbly at its sides. I opened and closed my mouth several times, but no words would come. What could I even say? What could I even do?

Moments like that day we stole the quail eggs felt so pivotal to me. But not to Noah, apparently. No, they were just blips on his radar, nothing more than a burden to remember.

How much did he remember about his relationship with Zoe, I wondered? Every moment, I guessed. I doubted that he had lost even a second of his time with her to the years, but with me… Hell, I still hadn’t forgotten that he hadn’t even gotten our meeting anniversary right at that party.

“Hannah?” Noah’s gruff voice snapped me out of my daze. “What is it? You look like you just saw a ghost.”

I quickly blinked back the tears that were welling up in my eyes and swallowed hard around the lump in my throat. Part of me wanted to grab his shoulders and shake him, screaming in his face. I wanted to knock the sense back into him, force him to remember.

But I knew, deep down, that it was no use. He couldn’t remember. Or maybe he just wouldn’t.

Get it together, I thought to myself. This doesn’t change anything. You knew it was this bad.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied, forcing that tight smile of mine once again—soon, it would stay glued to my face. “I think you’re right—it was me and Viona. But, um… I’m getting tired. I’m gonna head to bed.”

“Okay. Goodnight.”

“Night.”

Without waiting around to give either of us another chance to speak, I turned and hurried down the narrow hallway, just desperate to get out of his line of sight before I began to crumble completely. I could hear Noah’s footsteps as he rounded the corner to watch me go, but I didn’t stop or turn to look at him.

I just needed to get away. Away, away, far away…

As I slipped into the guest bedroom, I tried to remind myself that this was all for the best. Noah and I were on the verge of divorce, after all. It was past time I stopped letting myself get shattered every time he showed his indifference toward me, toward the love that we had never even truly shared.

Sighing, I crossed over to the bed and sank down, flicking on the bedside lamp. The room was small but comfortable, with a full-sized bed and plush pillows. If I were Noah, I would have slept in here last night rather than in the master bedroom, but…

No. I should have been over this by now. This man who meant everything to me at one point was about to be out of my life for good, and there was no need for me to wonder why or where he was sleeping. I should have been relieved that it was almost over, excited to take up my namesake as the female Alpha of my rightful pack and maybe even join the Luna Queen’s council.

So why did the thought of him still hurt so badly?

Once I pulled out my earrings and placed them on the bedside table, I paused, taking a shaky breath to compose myself. Just go to bed, I told myself sternly, standing. Let it go and get some sleep. In the morning, you can—

Suddenly, the sound of Noah’s voice drifted down the hallway and snapped me out of my reverie. I strained my ears, quietly padding across the room and carefully peering through the still-cracked bedroom door.

“...Zoe?”

“Noah,” I could just barely hear her voice breathe from her bedroom. “...Asleep yet?”

“...Just went…”

I couldn’t make out what they were saying exactly, so I cautiously pulled the door open a little wider and slipped back out into the dark hallway. There, down the hall, I saw it: Zoe’s door was open. Two shadows were cast onto the hallway floor from the lamp in her room.

I saw Noah’s form standing over her bed.

And I saw Zoe’s hands reach for him.

“Noah…”

When I saw him stride over to the door and shut it with a firm click, it was like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over me.

Suddenly, I felt foolish—so foolish for believing his story about staying here for Adam’s sake. Of course he had come for Zoe; why else would he have been in her home at all? Why would he have slept in her bed and not the guest bed?

My hand flew up to cover my mouth as I stumbled backward, my back slamming against the wall behind me. Tears streamed freely down my cheeks now as I tried to suppress my gasps of air, stumbling back into my room before I could be seen or heard in this state.

How could I have been so naive? How many times was I going to let this man shatter me into pieces?

Once I closed the door behind me, the sobs finally began to wrack my body. I slid down to the floor with my back against the hard wood of the door, collapsing in a heap on the carpet.

If I hadn’t been covering my mouth, they might have heard my sobs.

But I stayed quiet that night, even though it made my head pound.