Please Come Back, My Love novel Chapter 242

ha

My heart stopped. “What

I’m not sure. But she looks… fuck, Julian, she looks just like her.”

I was out the door in minutes.

The woman at the nightclub wasn’t Elena. I knew it the moment I saw her. The hair was wrong–darker, shorter. The way she held herself was different Softer. Less guarded.

But the resemblance was there. In the curve of her cheek. The shape of her eyes. The way she tucked her hair behind her ear.

I stood across the street, watching her through the window, and felt something crack open inside me.

She worked at the nightclub, I learned. A waitress. And she was alone. No family. No friends. Just her and a one–room flat in a bad part of town.

I might have left it at that. Might have walked away.

But then I saw the man.

He cornered her in the alley behind the café, his hand on her arm, his body too close. She was trying to pull away, her voice rising in panic, and I didn’t think. I just moved.

I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. He swung at me, caught me in the ribs, but I didn’t care. I hit him once, twice, until he crumpled to the ground and stayed there.

The woman stared at me, her eyes wide. “Thank you,” she whispered in accented English. “Thank you.”

I should have left then. Should have called the police and walked away.

But she looked so much like Elena. And she was alone. And I was so tired of being alone.

‘Do you have somewhere safe to stay?” I asked.

She shook her head.

‘Come with me,” I said.

She’d been living in my flat ever since. Sleeping in the guest room. Cooking meals I barely touched. Watching me with those wide, uncertain eyes, like she was waiting for me to tell her what to do.

I never touched her. Never even thought about it. She wasn’t Elena. She was just… a placeholder. A ghost I’d invited into my home because I couldn’t stand

the silence.

But now, after today–after seeing Elena alive, holding her daughter, looking at me like I was a stranger–I couldn’t do this anymore.

1/2

10:46 am

Chapter 242

ppp

“You should go, I said, my voice coming out rougher than I intended.

The woman on the sofa looked up, startled. “What?”

“You should leave. I found… I found the person I was looking for.

Her face went pale. ‘Did I do something wrong?”

“No.” I shook my head, suddenly exhausted. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. This was never about you.”

She stood, her hands twisting together. “Then why-

“Because I can’t keep pretending,” I said. “I can’t keep using you as a stand–in for someone who’s one. It’s not fair to you. And it’s not fair to her.

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