Fear
Troy’s POV
I learned the hard way what happens when you don’t protect the people who matter. My brother the older, tougher, the one who should’ve had my back was gone because I didn’t fight hard enough to keep him safe. I was the younger one, sure, but I always felt like I should’ve done more, been more jealous of his time, his trust. Nights after he died, I’d sit alone in the dark, staring at nothing, asking myself if things would’ve turned out different if I’d cared enough to shield him. The guilt carved a hole in me, and I swore I would never let anyone get close again.
Emotional ties?
They were a liability, strings that could snap and leave you bleeding when someone got hurt. So I built walls, thick and high, and turned myself into a man who didn’t feel, didn’t falter. That’
