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And took my heart along with her.

Everything I did was for nothing.

Her scent mixed with her lavender perfume lingers in every corner, wrapping around me like a ghost of her. Tormenting and making me miss her.

After we had woken up at the hotel, she silently freshened up and met me at the door when it was time to check out. She neither smiled at me nor spoke to me on the way back to my resort. Not even in the car or the train. She just kept gazing out the window.

As soon as we reached it, I didn’t stop her when she went to the cabin.

Deep down, a part of me knew that I lost her at that moment.

I just didn’t want to believe it.

Instead of following after her—a mistake—I went into my office to distract myself with work. I gave myself false hope that she’ll choose us. I haven’t let anyone in the way I let her. It pains me to know that it wasn’t enough.

When a knock sounded on my door, my heart lurched, thinking it was Twinkle.

Instead, it was Hilda who came to tell me that she checked out and left Zermatt.

I’ve been numb ever since.

It’s evening now and most of the staff is gone since there are only a few guests staying today. The lobby is deserted as I glance at the clock on the wall. She’ll be getting on the plane right now, putting several miles between us again.

The bell over the door chimes behind me, bringing in a cold draft of air.

I have half a mind to turn whoever it is away. Nothing holds meaning in life anymore, like Twinkle took all the colors away, and now it’s cold and gray.

Sighing, I straighten and say as I turn, “Sorry, we’re clo—”

The words die on my tongue when I lock gazes with none other than the woman with whom my world begins and ends.

At first, I wonder if I’m hallucinating.

Did I conjure up the ghost of her?

No, she’s too real.

She came back.

My heart pangs as I stare unblinking at a disheveled Twinkle in a zipped-up light blue puffy jacket, hair messy and wind-blown, eyes red and glistening while she clutches the handle of her suitcase with one gloved hand.

“Darling,” I whisper, my voice raw and bleeding.

She eats the distance between us with furious steps, bringing every nerve ending in my body to life just like the first time I saw her sitting at the bar, looking like the woman of mydreams. And the second time at the lodge, before her hilarious attempt at hiding from me. It doesn’t bring me amusement, knowing she’s mad and hurt because of me.

It was never my intention.

I shouldn’t have waited to tell her the truth.

But she’s always been skittish, and I needed a chance to show her that we belonged together.

She stops midway, letting her suitcase drop with a thud.

“Darling,” I murmur again, the sound thick with disbelief that she’s standing within touching distance and with emotions of having fallen fast and hard for her.

I didn’t believe in love at first sight.

Until I met her.