didn't

fall of my daughter's chest. The fever had eased-thank God-but every s

ess. I reached out, brushing damp strands of hair from he

brushing her temple. "You'll be o

elt like something breaking. She deserved so much more than this. Better than a mother who scrubbed beer-stained tables and laughed a

r tha

ingled with fear, a bittersweet cocktail I'd grown too used to drinking. I shoul

ri

thought of him was pois

I had built walls of silence and distance, brick by trembling brick,

locked on mine, unyielding, like no time had passed as if he still had some cl

let him in

if he fo

ock rattle

borhood weren't kind. They didn't bring neighbors with sugar to spare o

wed, firmer this

tly, but didn't wake. I tiptoed across the small room, every floorboard groaning under

le

name nearly bu

to open the

as t

ng. Maybe if I stayed silent. Maybe

I heard the steel, the command. The kind of tone people didn't ignor

ed hard.

n: "We both

leep. My stomach dropped. I couldn't risk him waking her. Couldn't risk those

enough to slip outside, shutting it quickly behind

here

hing. His suit was immaculate, with sharp lines and dark fabric that didn't belong in

ered, my voice harsh, my arms wr

. My tangled hair. The exhaustion ca

ake sure you g

r laugh. "I don't ne

ce cut like a knife. "If I

lie stumbled out too quickly,

d just close enough that his breath ghosted

e through me like glass. Years apart, and

my back to the door, every nerve sparking with fe

rching my face like he was trying to read the truth I was desp

r stopped think

s hit li

ught. The ha

i

e had chosen his empire, his blood-soaked ambition, over me. He had chosen the darkness

I whispered, hating the

presence pressed against me like a cage. I pressed my

me prove i

n't a plea. Th

knew-Adrian Moretti

und me fo

sh him away, the past I had buried w