Olivia gently pulled Adriana toward the bed, making her sit down with surprising care.
Aurora, her heart aching at the sight of her once proud sister looking so shattered, quickly ran to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water.
"Here, Ana," she said softly, using the childhood nickna they had for her.
Adriana took the glass with trembling hands but didn’t drink.
She simply stared down at the floor, tears slipping down her cheeks in a silent, endless stream.
Aurora sat down beside her, holding her hand, while Olivia crouched in front of her, her expression unusually serious.
Seeing how badly Adriana was crying, Aurora couldn’t help but frown.
’Why is she crying so much over Henry?’ she thought.
’They didn’t even date properly for more than a month...’
Olivia, always more direct, leaned closer and asked in a surprisingly gentle voice,
"Who’s the bastard?"
Adriana shook her head weakly, pressing her lips together to hold back another sob.
But Olivia wasn’t the type to give up easily. She tugged at Adriana’s hand insistently and said again, softer this ti, "Tell , Ana. Who hurt you?"
Adriana wiped her face roughly with the back of her hand. Her voice, when she finally spoke, was raw and broken.
"His na is Henry," she whispered.
"I... I started dating him a few weeks ago. He seed perfect... sweet, kind, everything I thought I needed. But it was all fake."
She let out a humorless laugh that cracked halfway through.
"He was only with for money. He didn’t love at all."
Another wave of tears flooded her eyes as she asked in a choked, broken voice,
"Am I that unlovable? Am I expecting too much by wanting soone to love for ?"
Olivia’s chest tightened painfully.
Without hesitation, she reached out and wiped Adriana’s tears away with her thumbs, her touch uncharacteristically tender.
"No, Ana," Olivia said firmly, her voice low but fierce.
"You’re not expecting too much. It’s not you. It’s them. You just haven’t t the right guy yet. One day, you’re going to et soone who will worship the ground you walk on.
He’ll love you like you’re a goddess. And that man..." she squeezed Adriana’s hands, "that man will be your future husband."
Adriana closed her eyes, the words sounding so far away, like a dream she no longer dared to believe in.
"It feels impossible," she murmured brokenly. "It’s like... every ti I trust soone, they turn out to be after sothing else."
Aurora squeezed Adriana’s hand tighter and said quickly,
"Ana, you’re amazing. You’re beautiful, you’re smart, you’re talented—you’re everything anyone could want.
Maybe right now it feels like everything’s falling apart, but... maybe it’s just the wrong people leaving your life."
She hesitated before adding with a small, sad smile,
"You should focus on your career, your dreams. And when the right man cos...he’ll find you. You won’t have to chase him or wonder if he cares. He’ll show you."
As Aurora spoke, she suddenly understood why Adriana’s heartbreak was so deep.
It wasn’t about Henry.
It wasn’t even about the love itself.
It was the cruel realization that maybe—just maybe—Adriana had been chasing the wrong kind of love all along.
First, there had been her high school love story—like sothing out of a cheerleader’s dream. She had dated the star player, the boy everyone admired.
But in the end, even that golden relationship had shattered over sothing as small and bitter as $500.
And now, again, she had fallen for another dream—only to discover that Henry had never loved her. He had seen her not as a person, but as a bank account.
It wasn’t just the breakup that hurt.
It was the pattern.
It was the slow, aching fear that maybe she wasn’t ant to find real love at all.
Aurora leaned her head against Adriana’s shoulder and whispered,
"You’re not broken, Ana. You’re just... learning who’s worth your heart."
Olivia, still crouching in front of her, gave a rare, small smile.
"And trust ," she said, with a flash of her usual sharpness, "those losers? They couldn’t even hold a candle to you."
"What is going on?" A familiar voice asked.
They turned around and saw Lucas and Theodore standing at the door.
Theodore had a stunned expression, and his eyes was were fixed on Adriana, while Lucas had a frown.
One thing that Aurora knew about her brothers was...they were protective...too protective.
In her dreams, Lucas never accepted Adeline purely because Adriana didn’t like Adeline.
Lucas walked up to Adriana and asked,
"Why are you crying?"
Adriana shook her head, trying not to cry; she didn’t want to blow the matter up.
But Lucas wasn’t having any of that, he continued to ask,
"Tell Ana, if you tell on your own, I will deal with it on my own, otherwise, I will have to drag parents into it."
That was the last straw, and Adriana told everything.
After hearing the entire story, Lucas and Theodore were silent before Lucas said with a dark expression,
"Give his contact number."
Adriana stopped Lucas and shook her head,
"Please don’t...let handle everything on my own, I am an adult now."
Lucas clenched his fists at his sides, his jaw tightening visibly.
"But—" he started again, voice low and simring with anger.
Adriana shook her head once more, firr this ti. She wiped at her eyes, straightening her spine despite the trembling in her limbs.
"I need to handle this," she said quietly but with conviction.
"If you step in every ti sothing goes wrong, I’ll never learn to stand on my own."
For a long mont, Lucas simply stared at her, his expression unreadable.
Then, with a sharp exhale through his nose, he looked away, jaw still rigid.
"Fine," he muttered, though the tension radiating from him was palpable.
Theodore, who had been unusually silent throughout the entire exchange, finally stepped closer.
His voice, usually light-hearted and teasing, was now soft and serious.
"Sis, after you are done, please tell , I will circulate his number as a sex worker."
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