THE LIGHT OF the town of Lancaster, Lancashire seemed to get duller and duller by each passing day. The streets seemed bare, the weather seemed miserable, the overall aura of the place was depressing. For the people who knew Luella, anyway. The people who let her down.

Like Cecilia for starters, who Luella thought she'd loved and cared for her like a mother would... Not a psychopath that made people spy on her.

Cecilia's life was ruined after Luella disappeared. She'd almost went crazy looking for her again, but thanks to her sister, she was at least sane, currently seeing a therapist. She wasn't convinced with the idea, but it distracted her from her loss.

Speaking of Josie, she was a wreck herself. Going through her sister's breaking and her adopted son's depression, it wasn't fair for her either. She'd realized she was partly to blame. She hated herself for what she'd put her Little Harry through. She'd thought he'd hated her for it, too.

As for Kate, she knew this was coming. She'd hated Harry and wanted Luella away from him, all for a reason. When she'd first known from Ben about the whole shenanigans that were happening, she wanted her best friend out of it. She knew there'd be heartbreak, but she definitely wasn't ready to lose Luella. And to lose her unknowingly, so suddenly, hurt. Luella was hurting and Kate was hurt for her. She hated Cecilia and Harry for it all.

Harry hated himself for it all. If he hadn't agreed to the devil's plan, he'd still have run into Luella at the hospital and seen her at his university. He'd still have a chance to know her, he'd have a chance to have her, so purely. His time with her was short-lived. He knew that, and he hated that he was the reason for it.

And for every reason, Harry couldn't just give up. Helplessly in love with her or not, he'd broken her. It was his doing that nobody could find her.

Cecilia, whom he hated but realized was still considered the closest thing to family Luella had had, was losing Luella. Josie was losing him and Cecilia. Kate was losing her best friend, and losing Ben to Harry as well.

Everything was in chaos. Everything was twisted and fucked up. He couldn't leave it like that. He couldn't just move on and give up on the love of his life. The Love of his life. He wouldn't let her be gone.

He couldn't lose faith.

Because Luella was everything and he couldn't let that be the end.

••

note:
this chapter is kind of a prologue and it's written in 3rd person point of view (pov) -just to pick up from where we left off. then everything will be back to normal and upcoming chapters will be written for a specific character's point of view (pov).
hope you're ready for this!
love, ness. xx