Kiss Me, Damnation

XIV

Evelyn

The hospital ceiling was a dull white, the kind that made your eyes ache if you stared too long. I found myself doing exactly that, lying there for hours after Adrian left, Daniel still curled up in the chair beside me.

My body was still, but my mind wasn’t.

It circled endlessly around last night. My uncle’s blood. His scream. The glint of steel in Adrian’s hands. The way Adrian’s voice had sliced through the room, calm and terrifying, as he whispered thank you for training her for me.

I shut my eyes, but the memory didn’t leave. It pressed harder. My uncle’s face contorted in pain. Adrian’s steady hands. My own tears, hot and endless, until I blacked out.

I had thought my uncle was the darkest thing in my life. But Adrian—Adrian made him look small.

He was twisted. Possessive. Ruthless. And yet, when I remembered the way he carried me into the hospital, the way his thumb had brushed my lips when he thought I couldn’t feel it… my chest ached with something I couldn’t name. Something I didn’t want to name.

I turned my head and looked at Daniel.

He was asleep now, his cheek pressed into the edge of the bed, his hand still holding mine as though it tethered me here. His face looked softer in sleep, his lashes resting against his skin, his lips parted slightly. For a moment, guilt stabbed me.

Daniel had done nothing but care for me. He had stood by me since the accident, since our first date that never happened, since Adrian’s shadows started creeping into my life. He was safe. Kind. Gentle.

But…

But something in me recoiled. Not because of him, but because of me. Every time he looked at me with those soft, tender eyes, I felt smaller. Like a fraud. Like I was pretending to be the girl he thought I was.

Maybe I really did need to break up with him.

Not for Adrian. God, not for Adrian. I would never give him that satisfaction. But because every day I stayed with Daniel, every smile I faked, every “I’m fine” I whispered, I was building a wall of lies. And one day, it would all come crashing down.

Still… letting Adrian win? Letting him smirk and whisper I told you so? No. I wouldn’t give him that.

I bit my lip hard enough to taste blood.

Days blurred after that. Nurses came and went. Daniel was there every morning, bringing flowers, books, his silly smile. He held my hand, told me jokes, read me stories when I couldn’t sleep. I let him. I smiled when I had to. I kissed his cheek when guilt threatened to drown me.

But Adrian never came back.

Not once.

At first, I thought it was a trick. That he was lurking in the hallways, watching from a corner, waiting until I slipped. But the days stretched on, and there was no sign of him.

And then my father came.

I hadn’t seen him in months—not since the court ruling that dumped me in my uncle’s house like an afterthought. He looked older, grayer. His suit hung looser on his shoulders, his tie crooked. His eyes were rimmed with red when he walked into my hospital room.

“Evelyn.” His voice cracked. He crossed the room in three strides and sat down at my bedside. For a moment he just looked at me, as though memorizing my face, and then he reached for my hand. “I’m sorry. I should never have left you with him. I thought—God, I thought it would be better than with your mother. I was wrong.”

I swallowed, emotions I didn’t know how to name knotting in my chest. Anger. Relief. Sadness.

“You didn’t care,” I whispered, my voice hoarse. “You won custody, and then you threw me away.”

His face crumpled. “I thought I was doing what was best. I thought—” He stopped, shaking his head. “No excuses. I failed you. But I’m here now. And you’re coming home with me.”

I wanted to hate him. I wanted to spit the word too late into his face. But I was tired of hate. I was tired of anger. I was tired.

So I nodded.

A week later, I left the hospital.

Living with my father was strange. He tried too hard—cooking breakfast when he never had before, asking about school, tiptoeing around my silence. His house was quiet, sterile, filled with memories of my childhood that felt like they belonged to another girl entirely.

And through it all, Adrian stayed away.

No notes. No whispers in the hallway. No smirks across the classroom.

It should have been a relief. It should have been freedom.

But instead, it gnawed at me. The silence. The absence. The unanswered questions clawed at my chest until I couldn’t stand it anymore.

So one afternoon, after a week of not being pestered, I went looking for him.

He was leaning against the brick wall behind the gym, the same way he always did—casual, unreadable, like he owned the space. His tie was loose, his sleeves rolled up, his eyes closed as though the world bored him.

For a moment, I almost turned back. But my feet carried me forward anyway.

“Adrian.” My voice was quieter than I meant it to be.

His eyes snapped open. The storm in them hit me like a slap.

“I just—” I swallowed. “I just wanted to thank you. For what you did. For saving me that night. I wouldn’t be—”

“Stop.” His voice was sharp, cutting me off.

I froze.

His expression twisted, anger flashing across his face like lightning. “You came here to thank me?” His laugh was bitter, dangerous. “You think this is gratitude I want?”

I blinked, stung. “I thought—”

“You thought wrong.” He pushed off the wall, closing the distance between us in two strides. His presence towered over me, heat radiating, suffocating. “I don’t want your thanks, Evelyn. I want you. And the fact that you can stand here, smile at him, hold his hand, and then come to me with polite little words like thank you—” He shook his head, his jaw tight. “It makes me sick.”

My chest tightened. Fear. Guilt. Something else I couldn’t name.

I opened my mouth to speak, but his hand shot up, not touching, just hovering inches from my cheek. His voice dropped to a whisper, venom laced with longing.

“Don’t thank me. Don’t ever thank me. Because I’m not your hero, Evelyn. I’m your damnation.”

I stepped back, heart pounding, words caught in my throat.

He didn’t follow. He just stood there, watching me, his eyes burning holes through me.

And in that moment, I realized something terrifying.

Adrian hadn’t left me alone.

He had just been waiting.

Waiting for me to come to him.

And I had.