Damien's point of view
I woke up feeling weird. Unsettled. Just… odd. As if my ribcage had decided to inch up in the middle of the night, and my muscles were playing catch-up. It was an odd kind of silence, the kind that leads to thoughts slinking out of their hiding place in the dark. Ava did that to me, lately. Just the thought of her darted into my mind. How she looked when she thought she wasn't being noticed. How she refused to cower. How she disrupted things I had worked hard to cement in place.
I was only in my boxer briefs when the door burst open.
“Ariel!” She flung herself at the bed, crying as if the world was ending, her small fists pounding against the mattress as she crawled toward me. I hardly had time to sit up before she buried her face in my chest, dripping tears onto
