Ariella’s POV
The moment those words left his mouth—“I’m going to die soon”—something inside me cracked like thin ice under too much weight.
My lungs forgot how to pull in air for a few minutes.
He was still grinning. That slow, crooked, almost-boyish grin that looked completely wrong on a man built like a war machine. Like he’d just told me the punchline to the world’s darkest joke and was waiting for me to laugh.
I stared at him. Hard. Searching for the lie. For the twitch in his jaw, the flicker in his eyes that would scream gotcha. Nothing.
Just those storm-gray eyes watching me like I was the only real thing left in his universe.
He’s bluffing, I told myself. He has to be.
I dragged in a slow breath, and kept staring at him like I was trying to peel his face apart and find the
