“I’m so mad at him… and at myself,” I mutter internally, sinking slightly into the bathwater, letting the warmth try to calm the storm inside me. “How could our father be so… broken? So cruel?”
Astrid’s presence wraps around me instantly, steady and grounding. “You’re allowed to be angry, Freya. But don’t let his darkness define you. You are not him. You never were.”
I close my eyes, letting her words settle. Having her here… it’s everything. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d still survive,” she replies softly. “But now you don’t have to do it alone. We’re stronger together. We always were—you just didn’t know it yet.”
I let out a slow breath, staring at the ceiling. She’s right. Sitting here, drowning in everything that’s happened… it won’t change anything. It won’t fix a
