It seemed that, apart from Betty, Alex was another person who truly understood Ashton. At least, he knew more about the dangers Ashton had faced than I ever did. But I wasn’t ready to dig into Ashton’s past struggles. Just imagining the pain he might have endured made my chest tighten. Learning more would only make me miss him even more.

“I don’t believe it,” Alex repeated firmly.

I understood. Deep down, I couldn’t fully accept that Ashton was gone ...