Chapter Sixteen
I didn’t breathe.
I couldn’t.
Everything felt suspended in a moment that stretched too long—too thin—like it was about to snap.
Ethan’s arm was still around me, firm, unyielding, but I could feel it now—
The shift.
Something had changed.
Not just in the air.
In him.
“You need to go,” he said, low and urgent.
“What?” I shook my head immediately. “No. I’m not leaving you here with—that.”
“You don’t have a choice, Ava.”
His voice hit different this time.
Not protective.
Not calm.
Final.
“I’m not—”
“Ava.” He turned to me fully now, gripping my shoulders tighter. “Listen to me.”
I did.
Because something in his eyes—
It scared me.
Not fear.
Not exactly.
More like… certainty.
The kind that comes right before someone does something irreversible.
“You need t
