LEANDER'S POV
Her voice dropped to barely a breath. "I try, Leander. Believe me, I really do. But deep down, there’s always this fear that maybe Gareth was right after all. What if I’m really not good enough? What if I put my heart out there again… and I get crushed all over again?”
She turned her head to me, and this time there were tears in her eyes that she didn’t bother to hide anymore. “I know myself, Leander. Most people don't know this, not even my own mother. Because I fight every day to make sure that it stays buried so that no one ever sees it. But the truth is that I barely survived it the first time. It almost destroyed me completely. I wouldn’t survive it again. So it feels safer to keep my heart out of this. To keep every man at arm’s length, including you.”
Her voice crac
