Zain POV
I don’t even realize I’m crying at first. It’s just heat against my face, tightness in my chest that won’t go away, shuddering breaths I can’t control, everything inside me cracking wide open and spilling out into the hands wrapped around me like they’re the only thing tethering me to this world. I don’t even have the strength to be ashamed of it anymore. I’m wrecked, stripped bare, nothing left but broken pieces and exhaustion so deep it feels like it’s stitched into my bones.
Liam holds me like he’s never going to let me go, one arm locked around my waist, the other cradling the back of my head, his chest pressed tight to my spine, steady and unshakable even as I shake apart against him. I hear him whispering to me, soft and steady, words I can’t always catch but I feel them,
