18. Asena
I cried until my chest hurt, until breathing became uneven… until my head throbbed painfully from holding everything in too long.
Roman never once told me to stop and that somehow undid me more than anything else.
Most people became uncomfortable around tears. They rushed to silence them, fix them or dismiss them like my mother but Roman simply held me like he understood that some pain needed to leave before it destroyed you from the inside.
My face stayed buried against his chest while his hand moved slowly through my hair gently in a way I wasn’t used to.
Eventually my crying weakened into quiet trembling breaths and exhaustion settled heavily into my bones afterward. The kind that went deeper than physical tiredness.
I stayed curled against him without moving and neither
