Page 191 of Bound By Crimson
Smiling.
Confident.
With the woman from the Winter Gala happily on his arm.
The one who bumped into her with a sneer and whispered, “You must think he’s yours.” And “you’re just a phase.”
Lyric’s stomach turned.
Her eyes dropped to the caption again:
The name slammed into her like a fist.
Camilla Crawford.
Her breath caught.
Her pulse slowed, then surged.
C.C.
The note Kai hid in the nightstand weeks ago—scribbled in looping handwriting:
Thank you for last night - C.C.
She’d made herself believe it meant nothing.
But it meant everything.
This woman had been around all along.
Lyric stood frozen, one hand now bracing her lower back.
Her heart wrenched. She had to get out.
Her eyes went to the wall—to the upside-down wallpaper.
The secret she no longer had to hide.
“She already knows,” she whispered. “So why am I hiding it?”
She stepped toward the seam, her fingers curling as she reached for the edge of the paper—
But the next pain hit harder.
A deep, twisting clench that shot through her core and buckled her knees.
She cried out, staggering back toward the bed, one hand gripping the edge of the mattress, the other wrapped protectively around her stomach.
Not now.
Not yet.
She collapsed onto the bed, gasping for air, her eyes still locked on the flowers blooming the wrong way up the wall. Rain tapped harder now, like fingers drumming a warning.
Now I have nothing to lose.
But I can’t move.
