The sun hadn't fully risen, but Hazel was already wide awake, her mind spinning faster than the city streets outside her window. Last night had been… different. Lucien had stayed by her side, truly stayed, and yet, there was an unease lingering like a shadow she couldn't shake.
She shook it off. She wasn't going to let doubts take the first word of her day. Not today.
But the knock on her door made her pause, her heart skipping a beat.
It wasn't Lucien.
"Hazel?" came a voice she hadn't expected to hear in months — sharp, familiar, and immediately unsettling.
Hazel opened the door to find Mara standing there, raincoat dripping, eyes sharp and calculating.
"Mara?" Hazel said, confused. "What… why are you here?"
Mara didn't answer at first. She just stepped inside, glancing around Hazel's apartment as if taking it all in. Then her eyes locked on Hazel. "We need to talk. It's about Lucien."
Hazel froze. Her chest tightened. "What about him?"
Mara's lips curled into a faint, unreadable smile. "You think you've started over. That everything is simple now. But there are things you don't know. Things he's been keeping from you."
Hazel felt a cold knot form in her stomach. "What do you mean?"
Mara leaned closer, lowering her voice. "You're not the only one who's been waiting for him. And you're not the only one who believes he's changed."
Hazel's mind raced. Secrets. Lies. She had hoped the storm with Lucien was behind them, but it seemed it was just beginning again.
Before she could respond, Mara turned and left as suddenly as she'd appeared, leaving Hazel with a single, chilling thought: whatever came next, she would face it — but some truths were far harder than heartbreak.
Just then, Lucien's text buzzed on her phone:
"Can we meet? There's something I need to tell you. Please."
Hazel stared at the message, her hand trembling. Open eyes. Open heart. She could do this. She had to.