CHOICES

ALANNA

When Lucas stepped out of the shadows, gun in hand, my heart clenched with a fear I hadn’t felt in years. The happiness of moments before—Nolan’s proposal, the promises of a future together—seemed to shatter like glass around us. All I could see was Lucas, his face twisted with rage and pain, his eyes filled with a darkness that sent chills down my spine.

It was as if everything we’d gone through, every battle we’d fought, was leading up to this moment. But instead of feeling strong, I felt vulnerable, exposed. Lucas was no longer the boy I once knew. He was a man consumed by hatred, and that hatred was directed at me.

“You came into my life and took everything,” Lucas snarled, his voice trembling with barely suppressed anger. “You took my family, you took the only love I had ever known, and now you’ve ruined everything!”

I tried to find the right words, something that could reach him, something that could make him see reason. But nothing came. All I could do was stand there, f