Wish you were mine

71. The silence after Ruin

PENELOPE

My skull felt like it was being split open from the inside-sharp, relentless pulses hammering against bone, each throb dragging a broken breath from my lungs. My throat burned, raw and unforgiving, and a violent cough tore through me as I forced my eyes open.

For a moment, everything was blurred-spinning shadows and fractured light-until reality settled in slowly, like poison seeping into my veins.

This wasn't my room.

I pushed myself upright, wincing as the world tilted dangerously. My gaze drifted around the space-soft pink walls, delicate décor, everything drenched in a kind of warmth that didn't belong to me. It was too gentle. Too safe.

Too her.

Relief slipped through me, bitter and hollow.

Madeline's house.

Of course.

My fingers trembled as they brushed against the unfamiliar bedding beneath me-silk-soft, pastel, untouched by the chaos that seemed to follow me everywhere. Unlike mine... unlike his.

A cough ripped through my chest again, harsher this time, leaving my throat scraped raw. I dragged myself out of bed, my legs unsteady, my body protesting every movement as if punishing me for last night's recklessness.

Wine... and ice cream.

I let out a dry, humorless laugh.

What a pathetic attempt at drowning heartbreak.

As I lifted my gaze, the mirror caught me-forced me to confront the wreck I had become.

My reflection stared back like a stranger.

Smudged makeup clung stubbornly under my eyes, my hair tangled and lifeless, my dress wrinkled as if it had absorbed every ounce of my misery. I looked... ruined.

Broken in ways no one could see-except me.

I didn't bother fixing it.

What was the point?

Dragging my feet, I stepped out of the room, each movement heavy, like I was carrying the weight of everything I refused to feel. The faint aroma of freshly brewed coffee wrapped around me the moment I entered the hallway-warm, grounding... painfully normal.

A life untouched by destruction.

Lucky her.

"You look like a mess."

Madeline's voice cut through my thoughts, blunt and unapologetic.

I didn't even have the energy to glare.

"My life is a mess," I muttered, my voice hoarse, barely above a whisper as I sank into the dining chair.

The cool surface beneath my fingers steadied me, but nothing could steady the storm inside.

I stared blankly at the table, my mind replaying everything I was trying so desperately to forget.

Love. Lies. Control.

Him.

Another cough escaped me, weaker this time, but it lingered-just like the ache in my chest.

Maybe the wine wasn't the mistake.

Maybe trusting him was.

And now... I was left to deal with the aftermath-alone, broken, and pretending that this chaos was something I could survive.

The bitter aroma of coffee reached me before the warmth did.

"Coffee," Madeline Carter mumbled softly as she placed the cup in front of me.