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Her shoulders fell. “Oh, Liam. I wish you’d been here a few hours ago.”

My brows drew together. “What happened?”

Meredith swallowed roughly. “She’s gone.”

“What?”

“Layla left. She left, and it kills me to say this, but she’s not coming back any time soon.”

Something twisted in my gut, the sense of loss creeping in all over again. “Where did she go?”

A beat of silence before a contemptuous laugh escaped. “I can see now why she refused to tell me.”

“What?”

Meredith’s eyes roamed over my face before she stepped back and opened the door wider. “Why don’t you come inside, Liam?”

I stepped in, wanting to latch on to any bit of hope I could. But I could feel the emptiness in the air the moment I was in the house. Even though Meredith had already confirmed as much, it was obvious Layla wasn’t here.

Meredith closed the door and urged me to follow her toward the living room. Though I didn’t feel much like sitting, I lowered myself onto the cushion I’d sat on more times than I could count over the last couple of years. Layla had always curled up beside me. Not having her there now just didn’t feel right.

“I begged her not to go.”

Agony dripped from every word. “You said she left, that she’s not coming back. I don’t understand. Where did she go?”

She shrugged, tears filling her eyes. “I wish I knew. She wouldn’t tell me. She said she’d reach out to let me know that she was okay, that she’s safe, but she didn’t want to tell me where she was heading.”

“I don’t understand.”

“She probably knew I’d take one look at you and tell you immediately, so that you could find her and bring her back.”

This was awful. What if something happened to her? What if she got hurt, and nobody knew where she was to even be able to check on her?

“I can only assume… Did she tell you what happened yesterday?”

Meredith nodded. “She told me that you proposed.”

“She rejected my proposal,” I shared. “I never saw it coming. I thought she loved me. I thought she was happy. And now you’re telling me, she’s just… gone?”

“My heart aches for you, Liam. For the both of you.”

“Did she say anything? Did she tell you why?”

A heavy silence stretched between us. “I wish I could say I have answers for you. I tried so hard to get her to open up to me, to get her to just stay and talk about it when she had some time to settle down. But she refused. She just told me she couldn’t stay here, that she needed to get away.”

It was like I was living in a nightmare. None of this seemed real. And it was entirely out of character for Layla.

My eyes dropped to my lap, the disbelief settling heavy on my shoulders. “Where would she go? Why would she leave?”

“Layla was so out of sorts last night,” Meredith revealed. “There was no talking to her, despite my repeated attempts to get her to tell me anything. I felt nothing but helpless as I watched her rush around her room, packing up her things. She wouldn’t listen to me, even though it was abundantly clear that she was hurting and making an irrational decision. I’ve never seen her cry like that. Never. Both of us were a mess. And yet, she still managed to bring herself to walk out that door. I haven’t slept all night.”

What had I done?

What had I missed?

How could I not have had a single clue that Layla was so unhappy with me, to the point she’d essentially run away from home because I proposed to her?

I proposed.