Aaron’s POV.
I told myself her no didn’t matter.
I said it in my head the same way I said everything else that was inconvenient. Calm. Controlled. Like naming it would make it smaller. Like saying it once would be enough to shrink it down to something manageable.
But Maeve turning me down didn’t shrink.
It stayed sharp. Stayed close. Followed me from room to room like something unfinished, like a door I’d closed but never locked. I felt it when I stopped walking. When the house went quiet. When I tried to sleep and my mind refused to rest.
She hadn’t hesitated.
She hadn’t softened it.
She didn’t say it to hurt me.
She said it because she meant it.
That was the part that stayed with me. The honesty. The way she didn’t flinch from it. The way she stood there, steady, and chose hers
