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When I called Arthur’s phone, it went straight to voicemail. Frustrated, I dialed his secretary, only to learn the truth: he had taken Bella to Kent and was already on his way to Dungeness.
It didn’t take me long to connect the dots. Bella had always loved wilderness adventures. Arthur–my fiancé–had dropped everything to indulge her whims.
What infuriated me wasn’t just that he left without a word, but the fact that he didn’t even think to inform me, his fiancée. If he’d told me beforehand that he planned to accompany her for a few days, maybe I wouldn’t have felt so humiliated.
But leaving me behind, so close to our wedding, to secretly travel with his first. love? No woman could accept that without
anger.
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Fuming, I booked the next flight and followed them to Dungeness. I didn’t care how impulsive it seemed–I couldn’t let him treat me like an afterthought.
When I arrived, Arthur‘ s reaction wasn’t relief or guilt. It was anger.
“You see?” he snapped. “This is exactly why I didn’t tell you! I knew you’d chase after me.”
His voice was sharp, but the disdain in his tone cut deeper than his words. He claimed he didn’t want me to come because I lacked the experience to survive a place as dangerous as Dungeness. He said he was worried about my safety, but I could see through his excuses.
I was already there and there was no sending me back. He had no choice but to bring me along.
It was on the first day that Bella rolled
down a sand dune, scraping her forehead. She wailed and cried, pointing fingers
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without hesitation.
He didn’t even ask if I had pushed her. He didn’t stop to consider what she had said to provoke me before the fall.
“Miss Lilly,” she had sneered, standing at the top of the dune just moments before.
“You might have the title of fiancée, but Arthur will never truly belong to you.”
Her words echoed in my mind, but I pushed the memory aside as a rescuer s voice brought me back to the present.
“Miss Lilly, please sign this document so we can complete your discharge.”
I nodded, picking up the pen with trembling fingers, my muscles weak from exhaustion.
As I stood, pain stabbed through my legs, nearly sending me back to the floor. Before I could steady myself, Arthur’s hand reached out to support me.
“You‘ re always so reckless,” he said,
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frowning. “If you had just admitted your mistake and apologized to Bella, you wouldn’t have had to suffer like this.”
His words were like salt in a wound. I bit my tongue, swallowing the bitter laughter rising in my chest. What mistake did he want me to admit? What apology did he think I owed?
I wasn’t the one who had pushed her.
But he wouldn’t see it that way. To him, Bella was faultless–his precious first love. And me? I was just the brash, headstrong woman who had always demanded too much.
Seeing the pain etched on my face, he softened, his voice losing some of its sharpness.
“The rescuers said your injuries aren’t too serious,” he murmured. “With proper care, you’ll recover in a few months. But what you did to Bella was out
of line. Pushing her down the dune… you
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almost ruined her face. Do you know how angry that made me?”
I cut him off, my voice cold.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said flatly. “I already told you–I’ll take responsibility.”
My calm, detached tone seemed to unnerve him. He stared at me, his brow furrowed in
confusion.
“Lilly… what’s wrong with you? You‘ re not like yourself.”
I ignored his concern, brushing off his hand as I forced my stiff legs to move
forward.
The month I had spent in Dungeness had taken a toll on my body. I had lost 80% of my body’s water and was little more than a walking corpse.
Every step was agony. My muscles were so stiff from dehydration that I could barely coordinate my movements. My skin, once
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smooth and radiant, was now dry and cracked, resembling withered tree bark.
I knew what he meant when he said I
wasn‘ t the same as before. He wasn’t talking about my appearance. But the secret behind the change? I wasn‘ t ready to share it yet. One day, he would know.
Back in Birmingham, Arthur took me to one of the best hospitals for a full
examination.
The results were as grim as I had expected. My body was ravaged–multiple organs. damaged from severe malnutrition and dehydration. A lack of vitamins and nutrients had left me on the brink of
collapse.
But what the doctors couldn’t measure
was the damage inside me.
The Lilly who had once clung to Arthur, who had loved him with a burning, reckless passion, no longer existed.
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I survived Dungeness, but I left my old self behind in that unforgiving desert.
