Chapter 18: Morning Ruins
377 Words
Chapter 18: Morning Ruins
(Some Mornings Never Forgive the Night)
Aria woke to a storm she hadn’t prepared for.
Damon was already gone.
The sheets were still warm where his body had been, but the air was cold, reality seeping in like fog. Her robe was tangled on the floor, her neck kissed with shadows only he could leave.
She sat up slowly, her head pounding—not from alcohol, but guilt.
What had she done?
Last night hadn’t been a slip.
It was a choice.
One she could never undo.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. She didn’t want to look—but she did.
Cade: I’ll come by in an hour. Can’t stop thinking about you.
Her stomach twisted.
She clutched the phone with trembling hands, staring at the message like it might disappear if she willed it hard enough.
But it didn’t.
Neither did the truth: she’d crossed a line.
And now, someone would bleed.
She rushed to the shower, trying to scrub the night from her skin—but the heat only brought back the way Damon’s mouth had burned across her collarbone, the way his voice had broken when he said her name like it still belonged to him.
By the time she wrapped a towel around her, she heard the knock.
Not again.
She opened the door.
Cade.
And his smile—so full of quiet affection, so unlike the man who had stood toe-to-toe with Damon days ago—made her heart split wide open.
“You look tired,” he said, stepping inside, brushing a kiss to her forehead. “Did you sleep?”
Barely.
She forced a nod.
He walked toward the kitchen, casual, familiar.
Home.
But all she could think of was the scent Damon left behind on her pillow.
“I made us a reservation for tonight,” Cade called. “Something quiet. Just us.”
“Cade…”
He turned.
Her voice cracked. “We need to talk.”
He froze. “Talk?”
She met his gaze. “About last night.”
The calm in his eyes shifted.
She could see it—feel it—the way the ground began to shake under the weight of a truth she couldn’t run from anymore.
- Writer
