Chapter Seventeen
I don’t know when I stopped resisting.
That’s the part that scared me the most.
Not the thing in front of me.
Not the way the air felt like it was tightening around my lungs.
Not even the fact that Ethan was calling my name—
And I wasn’t answering.
It was the quiet inside me.
The way everything else started to fade.
“Ava.”
Ethan’s voice sounded distant now.
Like it was coming from the other side of a wall.
“Don’t do this.”
I should’ve listened.
I wanted to listen.
But the pull—
It wasn’t force anymore.
It wasn’t dragging me.
It was guiding me.
And somehow… that felt worse.
My feet moved again.
Slow.
Deliberate.
This time—
I didn’t try to stop.
“Ava, look at me.”
I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Because if I did—
I knew this would break.
And for some rea
