AIDEN
Claire did not look back.
I stood where she left me, listening to her footsteps fade into the forest until even my hearing could no longer track her. The night slowly reclaimed itself, filling the space she had occupied as if she had never been there at all.
The silence that followed was worse than any confrontation.
I did not go after her. I had promised I would not, and for once restraint was not something I had to force. Every instinct in me knew that chasing her now would only confirm the fear in her eyes. If she needed distance to survive what I had done, then I would give it to her.
Even if it broke me.
When the sound of her finally disappeared, something inside my chest collapsed inward. Not violently. Not dramatically. It was a quiet implosion, like a stru
