CHAPTER ELEVEN - WHERE PAIN SLEEPS
233 Words
Liam stared at the canvas in front of him. He’d started a painting days ago-a swirl of colors with no real form. But today, it began to look like something.
It looked like her.
Naomie.
Not smiling. Not posing. Just... existing. Bruised, but unbroken.
His thoughts drifted to his own past. To the night he left his father’s house. To the shattered beer bottles, the shouting, the silence that followed. He never told Naomie that his scars ran just as deep.
Maybe it was time.
They met again at Cloud Nine Café, the place where it all began.
“Your painting,” she said. “How’s it going?”
Liam hesitated, then pulled out his phone and showed her a photo.
Naomie stared. “That’s me?”
He nodded. “How I see you.”
She blinked. “That’s... raw.”
“So are you,” he said. “So am I. Can I tell you something?”
Naomie looked up. “Please.”
He told her everything-his father’s rage, his mother’s silence, the guilt he carried like chains. He confessed the fear that he wasn’t enough for anyone, especially someone like her.
When he finished, she reached across the table and took his hand.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For trusting me.”
There, in that quiet corner of the world, two broken people sat-no longer hiding, no longer pretending.
- Writer
