What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger novel Chapter 19

Less than thirty minutes after Aiden left, Maya sent me a screenshot.

It was Madison's Instagram post: "Perfect morning ☀️ Say you're hungry and your crush magically appears with breakfast. I think this might be turning into something real... ?"

The photo showed the exact same box of chocolate croissants from my kitchen table.

I didn't reply.

Just silently wiped my tears and knelt down to clean up the spilled boba tea. After scrubbing forever, I realized with frustration that the stain had soaked deep into the wool carpet fibers. It wasn't coming out.

In a burst of anger, I rolled up the entire carpet and threw it away. It was the one Aiden and his parents had spent an entire afternoon picking out in Nepal and carried back as a gift anyway.

While I was at it, I gathered everything Aiden had left at my house, plus every gift he'd ever given me. Even all our photos together - from prom pictures to casual selfies - went into garbage bags.

It took all day to pack up and throw away six years of memories. Not like he'd want any of this stuff anyway.

After that day, I didn't hear from him for days. Things must be going well with Madison. Or maybe he was waiting for me to cave first - like I always did during our fights, without exception.

But this time, I didn't reach out.

There was no point anymore.

I blocked him on everything - Instagram, Snapchat, texts, calls. Changed my door code. Deactivated all my social media accounts.

"Brooklyn, sweetie! Where's Aiden? Isn't he taking you to Aspen for skiing? He mentioned planning a special trip - you have my full blessing!"

I was confused.

During senior year finals, I had mentioned wanting to go skiing in Aspen, dreaming about a winter getaway.

But given everything, a romantic trip seemed ridiculous now.

Running late for my flight, I mumbled some excuse and hurried off.

What I didn't expect was to see Aiden himself at the airport.