Johnny Gonzales let her walk. Watched the woman he built a life with disappear, bags packed with everything but the truth.
Winnie left to fix a wreck that wasn't hers to begin with. A broken person chasing another broken person, and I-coward that I am-let her. I didn't beg. Didn't stop her. I sat in the silence she left behind and convinced myself it was better this way.
Now she's back.
And it's like seeing a ghost. A beautiful, devastating ghost who doesn't belong in the daylight anymore. She's older. Sharper. But the storm in her eyes is the same.
I freeze. Rage coils in my chest, not at her-but at myself. For letting her go. For pretending it didn't ruin me.
She's in Whispering Oaks, throwing down papers with that flat voice I remember too well. "Sign these. Then you'll never see me again."
Like hell.
Because this version of her? The one who says she's done? I want her more than I ever wanted the girl who left.
I won't let her go again. Not without a war. Not without reminding her who she is.
Mine. Always f***ing mine.
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