The words stopped coming.
Salome sat there, wrapped in Malachi's sheets, staring at nothing. Her hands were shaking. Her entire body was shaking.
Five years.
She'd carried it for five years. Buried it. Survived it. Pretended it didn't break something fundamental inside her.
And now she'd said it all out loud.
Every detail. Every name. Every time they'd—
Her breath hitched.
Then again.
Then she couldn't breathe at all.
The sob came from somewhere deep, somewhere she'd locked away so tightly she'd forgotten it existed. It tore out of her chest like something living, something that had been clawing to escape for years.
Malachi moved immediately.
He set Kai gently on the bed beside her, then pulled Salome into his arms. She collapsed against him, her hands fisting in his shirt, her
