Chapter 41
Lily's POV
I couldn’t breathe when I saw him standing there, soaked to the bone and dripping all over the kitchen floor. My brain refused to accept it at first. Joe. In my apartment. In the middle of a storm.
I tightened my fingers around the stick in my hand, but my heart beat too loudly for me to act on instinct. He didn’t look like a king. He didn’t look like the monster I saw earlier tonight. He looked like someone completely lost. Broken. Haunted.
"Joe... what are you doing here?" I whispered.
He didn’t answer. Not with words. Just stood there staring at me like I was the only person left in the world. Something inside me cracked.
I lowered the stick and stepped aside. “Joe…are you ok?"
He stepped inside slowly, water squelching with each movement. His clothes clun
