PROLOGUE
I used to think some people stayed in your life forever.
Elena Brooks was one of them.
She was the kind of girl who laughed with her whole heart, who believed promises meant something, who stayed even when she shouldn't have. She was my best friend-my constant-from the moment we learned how to cross the street without holding an adult's hand.
And somewhere along the way...
she fell in love with me.
I didn't see it then.
Or maybe I refused to.
I was young, stupid, too sure she'd always be there. When someone new walked into my life, I let her drift to the edges of my world without noticing she was slipping away. I didn't mean to hurt her. But I did.
And one day, without warning, she was gone.
No long goodbye.
No last conversation.
Just absence-loud and painful.
Years passed, yet I never stopped looking for her in the faces of people passing by. I never stopped hearing her laugh in quiet rooms. I never stopped wondering how she would've looked growing up-if she still braided her hair, if she still loved yellow, if she ever forgave me.
Then one morning, she came back.
Not the girl I remembered.
Not the friend I carelessly lost.
But a woman-married, with two children.
And I was still the same:
the boy who realized the truth too late.
Standing in front of her felt like standing in the middle of a life that belonged to someone else. Her smile was softer. Her eyes warmer. Her happiness real.
Just... not with me.
People say time heals everything.
They're wrong.
Some moments never stop hurting.
Especially the moment you watch the only girl you ever loved walk back into your life-
belonging to someone else.
And all you can think is:
If only I had loved her sooner.
