LONELY HEARTS
Esmé's life takes a dramatic turn when she becomes entwined with Eiser, a son from a powerful family. Haunted by loss and trapped in a loveless marriage, she battles to connect with a man who conceals his emotions behind a wall of sile...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
WHERE HEARTS BEGIN
"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more." — Nicholas Sparks
The journey back to Esmé’s cottage was quieter than their earlier trek into the forest.
The sun had begun its slow descent, casting a soft amber glow through the trees, but the path felt longer than before.
Esmé’s boots crunched against the snow, her steps slower now as exhaustion began to weigh her down. She hadn’t expected the forest to take so much out of her.
Eiser walked ahead, his strides steady and unbothered, his coat brushing against the snow-covered branches as he passed.
Esmé’s breathing grew heavier, and she reached out to steady herself against a nearby tree for a moment.
“Are you alright?” Eiser’s voice, calm but laced with curiosity, made her lift her head.
“I’m fine,” she replied quickly, though her tone wasn’t convincing. She pushed herself to keep walking, but Eiser stopped suddenly, turning back to look at her.
She frowned. “Why are you stopping?”
Without answering, Eiser scanned their surroundings and gestured to a small clearing just off the path. “Rest here for a while,” he said, his tone firm but not unkind.
Esmé blinked, surprised by his suggestion. “Rest? We’re almost there, aren’t we?”
“Almost doesn’t mean now,” he replied simply, shrugging off his coat before dropping to the ground.
To her astonishment, he laid back on the blanket of snow, resting his hands behind his head as though the cold didn’t bother him at all.
Esmé crossed her arms, her confusion giving way to amusement. “You’re going to lie down in the snow?”
Eiser glanced up at her, the faintest hint of a smirk playing at his lips. “And you should too. Unless you’d rather collapse halfway to the cottage.”
Her tired legs protested any further argument, and with a sigh, she carefully lowered herself onto the snow beside him.
The cold seeped through her layers, but the exhaustion in her body seemed to melt into the stillness of the clearing.
She turned her head to look at him. “You’re strange, you know that?”
Eiser didn’t respond immediately.
His gaze was fixed on the sky, where the first stars of the evening began to twinkle against the fading daylight.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low, almost reflective. “Strange, or practical?”
