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The winter of 1980 bit deeper than anyone expected.
Caelen Rhodes trudged home through a blizzard, only to find the man who’d been sniffing around his wife asleep in his marital bed. That’s when he finally snapped.
“Liana! We've been married for one goddamn month, and you let Julian Croft sleep in our bed? You think he isn't obsessed with you enough already?”
Under the lamplight, Liana, clad in a black sweater, set down her book. She rose and walked toward him, her coolly beautiful face etched with disapproval.
“Calm down. Julian was drunk, he didn't mean it. Don't be so dramatic.”
“It’s just for one night. You’ve always been so understanding, can’t you just let this go?”
A spike of ice shot through his heart. The hand she held felt like it was encased in frost.
Caelen looked up at the serene woman in her gold-rimmed glasses.
They’d grown up together. He’d always loved her thoughtfulness, her kindness toward others. But right now, it felt like a stone in his gut.
He fought to control his breathing.
Julian was the Croft family’s long-lost son, found and returned just six months ago. He knew perfectly well that Caelen and Liana were a couple, yet he constantly clung to her.
They were all neighbors in the same development. For the sake of their parents, Caelen had turned a blind eye.
But now…
He suppressed a tidal wave of rage, stared into her eyes, and finally laid it all bare. “Liana, Julian is in love with you. Are you really that blind?”
He’d meant it as an angry jab, but Liana froze for a split second, her eyes darting away.
In that instant, his heart plummeted.
A bitter taste filled his mouth. He suddenly yanked his hand away. “If you knew everything, then what the hell were you thinking, telling me to be ‘understanding’?”
“Caelen…”
“This house isn’t big enough for both of us. You figure it out.”
With that, he shoved past her and stormed out the door.
“Caelen!”
The snow swirled outside, a blinding white chaos.
The wind howled, strong enough to knock a man off his feet.
Caelen had just run out of the housing development when a hand grabbed him from behind, pulling him into a tight embrace. “It’s freezing out here. Where could you possibly go? Please, come home with me.”
Her arms wrapped around him, her voice as gentle as always, but the injustice in his heart erupted.
“If I go back, is there any room left for me? Is there any room for me in your heart?”
“Of course, in my heart—”
Before she could finish, a pathetic voice drifted from behind them. “Caelen, don’t blame Liana. It’s my fault, I’m the shameless one. I’m terribly sick… I’m going to die. I just wanted a little more time with her before the end…”
“What?”
The arms holding Caelen suddenly went slack.
Before he could react, Julian rushed in front of him and dropped to his knees with a thud, grabbing his arm and begging.
“Caelen, man, I don’t have much time left! Please, can you do me this one favor? Let me have Liana for just a few days. Let me feel what it’s like to be loved, just once?”
The grip on his arm was painful. Caelen instinctively tried to pull away. “Let go of me first.”
The moment the words left his mouth, Julian gave him a violent shove.
“Ah—!”
They both stumbled backward. Liana reached out… and instinctively caught Julian.
*Thump!*
Caelen slammed onto the ground. A sharp *crack* echoed as his left wrist broke.
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