Prologue
Rain poured heavily across the city streets as Amanda Cole stood outside the apartment building she once called home. Her trembling fingers clutched her phone tightly while tears mixed with the rain running down her face.
The message on the screen refused to disappear from her mind.
I never loved you the way you loved me.
Three years.
Three years of loyalty, sacrifices, and dreams shattered in a single sentence.
Inside the apartment, laughter echoed faintly through the door. Amanda closed her eyes as another wave of pain crashed through her chest. Jason—the man she planned to marry—was inside with another woman.
The worst part wasn’t the betrayal.
It was realizing she had ignored every warning sign because she loved him too much.
Amanda inhaled shakily before slipping the engagement ring from her finger. For a moment, she stared at it beneath the streetlight.
Then she dropped it into a puddle.
Without looking back, she walked into the storm.
That night, Amanda made herself a promise.
She would never fall in love again.
But love had a way of finding people when they least expected it.
