Regret Came Too Late

The next day at 6:00 am, Ethan's car drove past Grace. She had been standing there all night, and her head was fuzzy from the exhaustion. However, the second she saw him, her eyes lit up with hope. "Mr. Henderson..."

The car didn't even pause. It rolled past her without a single glance. She froze, then stepped back to her place.

The day dragged on, and Druville was deep into winter now. The temperature had plunged since last night, and her feet had gone from cold to numb to pain. Moreover, it was starting to snow now. Grace sniffed once, then again.

She stayed rooted in place. She didn't have the guts to leave until Ethan forgave her.

Somehow, Yancey found out she was outside Palm Bay and drove over almost immediately. He wasn't exactly pleased when he saw her.

"Grace! What are you doing here? Why are you outside Ethan's place?"

After his previous run-in with Thomson, Yancey convinced himself that Grace liked him. When she didn't make a move afterward, he started second-guessing things and ended up unloading his confusion on his gang of good-for-nothing friends.

These guys used to treat Grace like a joke, like a pathetic, lovesick girl chasing after Yancey. They even liked riling him up about it.

Lately, something had changed. Whenever Yancey got drunk, he would start slurring her name, ranting nonsense.

"How the hell does someone just stop loving you? That doesn't happen. Did she ever love me at all? Oh, wait. What if Thomson wasn't the decoy and I was? Or worse, what if we both were? No, no way. I'm Yancey Henderson! I have the looks and the money. Grace would have to be blind to treat me like a placeholder."

Yancey would sprawl across the table in the private lounge while muttering to himself, and his friends would join in, trashing her right along with him.

There's nothing special about a girl like that, and there are tons of women in the city better than her. If she's got you down this bad, let's just find you

right on cue, Yancey would snap up his

one who screwed up. I was blind as hell. I chose someone like Alice, slept with her, and

keep going like that, muttering the same thing on loop until

day, he could say whatever he wanted about

stormed over to Grace. Her cheeks were red from the cold, and it upset him enough to start yanking off

rejection hit him square in the chest. He was ready to blow up but then remembered he was supposed to be chasing

If you still have feelings for me,

mouth, his eyes lit up. He was already picturing it-the life he wanted

so well. She could cook, and she was thoughtful too. If they really got married, he figured his life would be nothing

a hundred times. I

but he still reached out,

a memory

him chicken

him

he stayed upstairs, tending to Alice, who was