AIDEN's POV
The door closed behind me with a soft click, but the sound echoed through the empty hallway, dragging something raw and unspeakable from inside me. Leaving her room, leaving her, should have felt like I’d done the right thing, like a clean break. But it didn’t. It felt like ripping open a wound I’d kept hidden, a cut that ran deeper than I’d let myself admit.
I wanted to tell myself it was better this way, that distance was what she needed, what we needed. But standing here in the quiet of my own house, all I could feel was that empty ache—the kind that gnawed at you, hollowing out parts you didn’t even know existed. I hadn’t realized how much she’d gotten under my skin until tonight.
I sank onto the sofa, dropping my head into my hands, the weight of exhaustion pressing dow
