Can’t Win Me Back

“I’m sure.” Lauren nodded firmly.

In an unusual departure from his usual composure, Cyrus fixated on the portrait, his usually steady demeanor giving way to a tense stillness, his eyes tinged with red.

Concerned, Lauren approached him, noting the uncharacteristic reaction.

“Cyrus, are you alright?”

Cyrus responded hoarsely, “I’m sorry. I need to go to the restroom. Where is it?”

Jasper raised his hand, indicating the direction. Cyrus immediately left with purposeful strides.

“Lyse, do you recognize him?” Jasper hugged Alyssa by the waist and asked with anxious urgency.

Alyssa took a deep breath, striving to quell her tumultuous emotions. “He bears a striking resemblance to my late brother, Damien, who perished in a plane crash.”

Jasper and Lauren widened their eyes in disbelief.

wound in the Taylor family’s collective heart. Tears welled in Alyssa’s eyes as she

passing, especially in the presence of Mandy and Cyrus. Not out of forgetfulness, but because his memory was

of Damien’s passing. Clad in his pilot

imagined it would be our

fleeting goodbye transformed into an

tightened, a heavy sadness settling upon

any words seemed feeble in the

her gaze following Cyrus’ departure with

in the portrait doesn’t only look like

fingertips tightened around the paper. “But the authorities

“This is unbelievable.”

you didn’t see his body,

crash, why didn’t he reach out to

just

emotions faltered, his reddened eyes betraying his inner turmoil.