Chapter Twenty-One
I don’t know how long I wept. I lost all sense of time and reason as the horrible grief and pain flooded out of me.
When the tears finally slowed, my throat was raw, my ribs hurt, and my eyes were swollen. Alec still held me tight. He’d carried me to the beach, to the far corner by the glass. Unless they’d been searching for us, no one would spot us tucked in the shadows, hidden behind the metal beams that supported the tanks.
Once my sobbing stopped, I sat quietly for a long while, waiting for the dam to burst back open. But I was hollow. I had no tears left to cry or pain left to tear me open. I’d gone numb, and I was grateful for it.
“Why”―I swallowed, trying to make my words come out more clearly―“why didn’t you tell me?”
Alec loosened his hold on me, not much,
