Eight Years of Quiet Love

Synopsis

For eight years, I harbored a secret crush on Lucas Brooks. And then, I slept with him. The next morning, I heard him on the balcony, taking a phone call. "I told you, it was just a one-night stand. Marry her? Don't be ridiculous. Just give her some money and send her on her way." I didn't cry. I didn't make a scene. I got dressed, went home, and dragged out the box filled with eight years of memories from my closet. Secret photos, movie ticket stubs, a button he'd discarded. I dumped it all into a black garbage bag. As the garbage truck rumbled past, crushing everything beneath its wheels, I let out a long breath. Later, that same man who said "just throw some cash at her" took a red-hot steel pipe through his back to save me. He lay on the ground, covered in blood, but he was still smiling. "Thank God… it didn’t hit your face. You're getting married tomorrow, even if the groom isn't me. You should still be the most beautiful bride." Ivy Laurent POV For eight years, I harbored a secret crush on Lucas Brooks. And then, I slept with him. It was unexpected, absurd, yet somehow inevitable. I woke at