Chapter Twenty-Two
I wish I could say I fought harder after that.
That something inside me snapped back into place.
That I suddenly found strength I didn’t know I had and shut it out completely.
But that’s not what happened.
What actually happened?
I got quieter.
Not on the outside.
Ethan was still there, still watching me like I might disappear if he looked away for even a second. I still answered him when he spoke. Still nodded. Still moved.
But inside?
Something shifted.
Something settled.
And that terrified me more than anything else so far.
Because the chaos was gone.
The panic.
The resistance.
All of it had faded into something much worse—
Acceptance.
Not fully.
Not consciously.
But enough.
“Ava.”
Ethan’s voice pulled me back.
I blinked, realizing I had been st
