15
Beardley Lodge
6:49 p.m.
“Is everything OK?” Sebastian’s hand on Laetitia’s shoulder gently brought her away from her stupor.
She smiled tightly, shoving the memories back in the recesses of her mind. “Pardon. Old ghosts.”
“You didn’t love the asshole, did you!”
“Hell no.” She stopped at the finality of her own words.
It was so shameful how she’d been utterly tricked by her own emotions. She’d been swept away by supposed feelings of love, which in the end had proved to be nothing more than her own imagination.
“Does it hurt to speak of him?” Sebastian asked tentatively.
“Of him? No, it doesn’t.” And oddly, Laetitia meant it. It hadn’t mattered that she was a teenager, and it had lasted less than three months. It would always sting, what had happened and what had not happened. W
