AIDEN – POV
I didn't speak again.
Not because there weren't a hundred things I wanted to say… but because none of them would've been enough.
No apology could undo what I'd done.
So instead, I didn't speak.
I just held her.
She stayed limp in my arms, curled up like a wounded animal—small, shivering, fragile in a way I'd never let myself imagine. Her hands, still clutching her little pile of belongings, trembled slightly. Like even now, some part of her didn't believe she was allowed to stay.
She thought I would throw her out.
Maybe she wanted me to.
Maybe that would've made things simpler.
I should've hated her. I tried to. God knows I tried.
But now, as I brushed a strand of tangled hair from her face, gently tucking it behind her ear, all that loathing drained out of me like poison from an old wound.
I didn't hate her anymore.
I hated what I'd done to her.
