After Our Fall, Love Reclaimed

In the fourth year of my complicated relationship with Jayden Lewis, my family went bankrupt. His muse, Selah Martin, seized the chance to quip, “Now she’ll finally learn what it means to face some tough times and tame that spoiled nature of hers.”

Taking her advice to heart, Jayden left me stranded in a foreign city. Four months later, beaten down but not broken, I returned to Paris.

People assumed I’d continue to hang onto Jayden. Instead, I actively avoided him, returned his gifts, and made a clean break. Jayden laughed with his friends, saying, “I finally got rid of that clingy nuisance.” However, on the day I left Paris, he showed up at the airport looking disheveled, pleading with a trembling voice, “Lilah, stay. Let’s get back to where we were, please?”

I smiled with a hint of mischief and pointed to my slightly rounded belly. “Jayden, look, how can things ever be the same?”

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When I returned to Paris, scarred inside and out, Jayden’s assistant picked me up at the airport. As I arrived, the private room was buzzing with chatter. Just as I got closer, I heard Jayden’s voice, “Lilah Rivera has changed; she seems much more subdued now.”

“That spoiled streak of hers needed some tough love,” someone chimed in.

“Selah was right. Since her family went broke, she’s no longer the heiress she once was. Who’s going to put up with her old ways now?”

“My condolences, Jayden, for having to deal with her,” another added with a laugh.

Jayden sneered, “Tell me about it. She’s like a bad penny that keeps turning up.”

As he finished speaking, he looked up and saw me standing at the door. The room, once filled with laughter, fell silent. I could see the shock, surprise, and disbelief in their eyes.

Just four months ago, I was the picture of a radiant and spoiled heiress. Now, I looked worn and gaunt, like someone who’d narrowly escaped from a nightmare. Selah, always cool and collected, spoke first, “Lilah, what happened to you? Come in…”

But I didn’t move. Nor did I react the way I used to when I saw Selah sitting next to Jayden. In the past, I would immediately show my displeasure, easily provoked to tears by Selah’s words, and end up having a big scene with Jayden. Those gatherings would always end on a sour note, and many people grew to dislike me because of it.

Looking back on it now, I felt amused.

“What are you doing just standing there? Get over here,” Jayden frowned at me. His expression was one I knew all too well—disdain and impatience.