The Year She Stopped Being Crazy for Him novel Chapter 267

It was strange, really. She despised the high school boys in her class who would sneak off to the bathroom between periods and come back reeking of smoke. She avoided guys who smoked like the plague.

Yet the person she adored most—the untouchable, flawless Hassan—now carried the very trait she hated. Logically, she should have liked him a little less.

Instead, after she went home that day, she secretly bought a pack of cigarettes behind everyone's back. She hid in her room, using the smoke to peer into a hidden corner of his world.

The smoke hit her lungs, harsh and burning, choking her. It tasted terrible, just like the drops of white liquor her family forced her to try off the end of a fork during the holidays.

But because of him, she forced herself to endure it until she looked like she knew exactly what she was doing.

During a conversation sometime later, he casually mentioned that she shouldn't touch cigarettes or date at her age. And just like that, she never touched one again.

Only he had the power to casually dictate the choices in her life—a privilege she had personally handed to him.

She had barely taken one drag before Hassan snatched the cigarette from her fingers. His gaze was impossibly deep and heavy as he looked at her. His Adam's apple bobbed, his voice coming out a little hoarse. "I really am understanding you less and less."

Was it that he understood her less, or that he just liked her less?

The corners of her mouth curved up, her eyes gleaming. "You never understood me to begin with."

If he truly understood her, he wouldn't have been so brazen about his affair. Because he would have known that no matter how deeply Natalie loved someone, if they betrayed her, she would walk away. It wouldn't matter if they had twenty years of history, or forty, or eighty—even in the final moments of her life, she would still have the resolve to leave.

Jude's leather shoe crushed the discarded cigarette on the floor. He clapped Hassan on the shoulder. "Throwing a lit cigarette on the floor? Where are your manners?"

Hassan moved blindingly fast. He grabbed Jude's wrist, twisted it back, and shoved him away.

Jude hissed, rubbing his wrist. "Damn, that hurts."

He smoothly accepted the glass of red wine from the server and sat back down. "I'm honestly pretty surprised too. I thought you knew everything about her. After all, she practically glued herself to you growing up. Even when we all had dinner together, she'd talk your ear off about every little detail of her life."

Whenever Natalie was around, she easily did the most talking. Not even Jacob Holt could compete.

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