Chapter 34: Silence

The coffee shop echoed with the haunting aftermath of Reid's departure. Bella sat alone at the corner table, the remnants of their meeting scattered like shattered glass. Tears flowed down her cheeks unchecked, her hands trembling as she clutched the edges of the table.

The scenarios she had played out in her mind before meeting Reid had never prepared her for this level of rejection. His words, laced with anger and disdain, cut through her like a knife. The ruthless and brutal way he dismissed her left her shivering, a sense of shock and disbelief wrapping around her like a suffocating cloak.

At that moment, the man she thought she knew, the man who had once held her in the tender embrace of passion, seemed like a stranger. The threats he launched before storming out lingered in the air, leaving her scared and shaken to the core. She never anticipated that Reid, the one she had let into the most intimate corners of her heart, would treat her with such cruelty.

Her heart bled as she s