AVERY'S POV:
I lay on my bed, staring at the cracks in the ceiling, trying to make sense of it all. My throat still ached from Axel’s grip, the phantom sensation lingering like a cruel reminder. But the pain wasn’t just physical. It was in the way he’d looked at me—as if I had crossed a line that could never be uncrossed.
I had taken this too far. Letting myself get comfortable in a world that wasn’t mine. I should have known better than to call Sea my daughter, even as a joke. Even as something that felt natural in the moment. But it wasn’t natural. None of this was.
The flour fight, the laughter, the warmth of sitting at the dinner table like a family—it had all been an illusion. And I had let myself sink into it too easily. Like a fool.
Axel wasn’t the kind of man who softene
