Chapter 89

(Emily’s POV).

“Why don’t you give up, Ben?”

My voice cut through the gentle hum of the garden, breaking the tranquility as I stepped toward him. Ben was hunched over, hands full of grass clippings as he tended to the flowerbeds in my father’s yard.

His head jerked up at my voice, his face creased in mild surprise. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to show up here, and certainly not to confront him.

The annoyance simmered in my chest as I walked closer, a dull ache pushing me to get the words out, to speak my mind finally. Every time I saw him here, every time I knew he was just around the corner from my life with Mike, it gnawed at me like an open wound.

Ben stood up slowly, straightening to his full height, wiping his hands on his jeans.

“Emily,” he said, his voice calm but wary. “I didn’t think you’d come here just to see me.”

“I came here to ask why you haven’t disappeared from my life,” I replied, my tone sharper than I’d intended. “After everything, why not just… give up?”

He loo