---- Chapter 14 The holiday season arrived in Paris. The city was aglow with lights, and the air was filled with the scent of roasted chestnuts and mulled wine. But for me, the festive atmosphere only highlighted my loneliness. It was my first Christmas without family, without the traditions | had known my whole life. A small, sharp pang of homesickness hit me, a feeling | had managed to keep at bay until now. One evening, | was scrolling through a design blog on my tablet when a photo made me freeze. It was a picture of the Grand Cathedral, the one where | was supposed to get married. It was decorated for a different wedding, someone else's big day. But the floral arrangements, the lighting design, the elegant white drapes... they were mine. Every detail was taken directly from the design portfolio | had created for my own wedding. Some other couple was living out the dream | had so carefully crafted. The sight of it brought a fresh wave of sadness. All that work, all that love, all that hope, all for nothing. Just a beautiful memory for someone else. | closed the tablet, my chest feeling tight. Just then, Vanessa ran into the room, her face alight with excitement. "Ava! The fireworks! Come see!" ---- Isabelle was taking her to a small neighborhood fireworks display. | put on my coat and went with them. We stood in a small park, surrounded by laughing families. Vanessa sat on my shoulders, her small hands tangled in my hair, her eyes wide with wonder as the colors exploded in the night sky. "Ooh! Ahh!" she squealed with every new burst of light. | looked up at the sky, at the brilliant, fleeting beauty, and | felt her simple, uncomplicated joy. It was a balm to my wounded soul. This was my life now. It wasn't the life | had planned, but it was real. "| wish Daddy was here," Vanessa said suddenly, her small voice quiet in my ear. The words, so innocent, sent a jolt through me. "Your daddy loves you very much," | said softly, my voice a little thick. "He's just busy." "Is your daddy busy too?" she asked. | froze. The question hung in the cold night air. How could | explain to a four-year-old that my daddy was in heaven, and the man who was supposed to be my new family had broken my heart into a million pieces? "Yes, sweetie," | whispered, my eyes stinging. "He's very busy." Across the ocean, Liam was not at a fireworks display. He was standing in a cold, windswept cemetery, the one where my parents were buried. He had come here as a last resort, a ---- desperate pilgrimage to the only place he thought | might one day return to. He walked to the familiar plot on the hill. And he stopped dead. The headstone was gone. In its place was just a square of freshly laid turf. The ground was empty. My parents, my last connection to this place, had been moved. He stared at the empty patch of grass, a wild, panicked feeling clawing at his throat. She hadn't just erased herself. She had erased her entire history. She had dug up her own roots and taken them with her. There was nothing left of her here. Nothing at all.