Aria stood frozen, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, staring after Romeo as his retreating figure disappeared into the shadows of the estate. The cold night air stung her cheeks, the sharp bite of it contrasting with the heat that still lingered beneath her skin. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. His words echoed in her mind, raw and cutting, each one a shard of glass embedding itself deeper.
Romeo had yelled at her.
It was such an impossibility that even now, as her heart raced and her chest tightened, she couldn’t quite believe it. Romeo, who had always been her calm in the storm, had finally cracked, his quiet restraint shattering into something fiery and unrecognizable.
And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to be angry with him. She had seen the pain in his eyes, the frustra
