Chapter 3

This was almost a form of slow torture. I lay limp on the bed, wrapped in a suffocating smell that didn't belong to me. My stomach kept spasming as the past ten years flashed through my mind.

For him, I gave up the chance to keep studying. For him, I cut off my old friends. For him, I burned through my health and turned into a machine that only knew how to work. I had thought we were running toward each other.

What I never knew was that Richard's deep-seated insecurity and darkness ran so deep, he could never accept…