Sophia
I wasn’t asleep.
From the moment Erick entered my chamber, I had been fighting the urge to open my eyes, to reach out and stop him from leaving.
Every word he whispered, every pause where his breath hitched, I heard it all. And though my body remained still against the sheets, my heart trembled violently inside me.
I couldn’t bear to part with him.
That was the truth I would never confess aloud.
If I opened my eyes, if I looked at him even once, the strength to let him go would vanish, and he would never leave. And I knew that despite the agony of it that he needed to leave, just as much as I needed him to stay.
But beneath the ache of love, another wound festered, darker and deeper.
Because no matter how much my heart beat for Erick, no matter how desperately my soul reac
