VILLA OF THORNS

THE FAVOR

The silence between them wasn't heavy anymore.

It was soft.

Not the silence of rage or betrayal—but of two people standing at the edge of something they couldn't name.

Katie looked at him. Really looked.

He hadn't shaved. His eyes were tired. His shirt was wrinkled like he'd been sleeping in chairs, pacing halls. Like he hadn't left this place since the moment they brought her in.

And in that moment, the anger she'd held onto so tightly—burning and raw—softened into something else entirely.

Gratitude.

"You saved my life," she said quietly, voice hoarse.

Yannis blinked, startled. "Katie—"

"No," she interrupted gently, "let me say it. I need to."

She swallowed, reaching for the small cup of water beside her. Her hand still trembled as she lifted it, and Yannis moved forward instinctively, but stopped himself before he touched her.

She noticed the hesitation and it made her heart squeeze.

"You could've walked away," she said. "After everything. But you didn't. You came. You broke my door down. You got me help."

Yannis didn't speak. His jaw clenched. His gaze stayed on her, eyes too bright.

She smiled. A sad, tired little thing. "So... thank you."

He let out a slow breath, like the words broke something inside him. But before he could speak, she continued—this time, quieter.

"There's something else I need to ask of you."

Yannis frowned, watching her carefully.

Katie lowered her gaze, her voice barely more than a whisper. "Marry Milly."

He looked like she'd slapped him.

Katie forced herself to keep going. "She loves you. She's wanted this since before you ever knew my name. And you—" her voice trembled, "you were supposed to be hers."

"Katie—" Yannis stepped closer, voice breaking, "I can't—"

"Please," she said, eyes glistening. "If there's one thing you can give me, let it be this. Let it be peace between us. Let me... stop being the reason everything fell apart."

"You're not," he said firmly. "You're not the reason."

She shook her head, one tear slipping free. "It doesn't matter what's true. It matters what people believe. And they believe I ruined everything. You marrying her—it'll make it right again. For her. For them. For me."

Yannis looked shattered.

Like her request was the last thing he wanted to hear.

But she smiled at him again. That soft, devastating Katie smile that always made people feel safe, even while she was breaking.

"You don't owe me love, Yannis," she said. "Just... closure."

Silence.

Painful. Still.

Then Yannis stepped forward and knelt beside the bed, unable to keep the distance any longer. He took her hand gently—like it was made of glass—and kissed her knuckles.

"You think I saved your life," he whispered, "but Katie... you saved mine first. I was just in autopilot with Milly. With you... it's different. You don't know what you do to me".

Her breath hitched.

"You can't say that Yiannis. She really loves you".

"And what about you? What do you feel?" He asked her, moving closer to her.

"Im not supposed to feel anything Yiannis. I barely know you. I don't even know yiur likes and dislikes I don't even know your favorite color". She replied.

⸻

Milly had only stepped away to grab coffee. Just a few minutes to collect her thoughts, to breathe. To stop pretending that she didn't want to hit Katie and hug her at the same time. She was hurting and it was draining her to pretend she was okay with all this, that she was okay with her best friend and her fiancé sleeping together on the night of her bachelorette party. She wished the lights had never gone out in the lake house. Perhaps then there won't be so much chaos.

When she returned and heard Yiannis's voice inside Katie's hospital room, she stopped outside. It wasn't the sound of his voice that stopped her.

It was Katie's.

Soft. Fragile.

Wounded.

Milly's hand tightened around the styrofoam cup in her fingers. She stepped closer to the door, just enough to hear, just in time to catch Katie's voice saying:

"Please... marry Milly. If there's one thing you can give me, let it be this."

Milly's breath hitched. Her heart stopped. She took a step back from the door like the words had physically hit her.

Inside, silence stretched.

Then Yannis's voice—low, broken.

"You think I saved your life, but Katie... you saved mine first. I was on autopilot with Milly. With you....its different. You don't know what you do to me"

Milly couldn't move.

She wanted to be angry. Furious. She wanted to storm in there, scream, demand to know why he hadn't stopped the wedding early if he felt that way about her. But what she felt instead was a deep, consuming sorrow.

Katie's voice hadn't been seductive or defiant.

It was heartbreaking. It was the voice of someone trying to give something back that had never truly belonged to her. Trying to fix what was broken—even if it cost her everything.

Milly leaned her head against the wall beside the door. Tears slid down her cheeks silently. She didn't wipe them. Hearing what Yiannis had to say hurt more than anything else.

Because it meant Yannis had never truly been hers.

Not the way he was Katie's now.

⸻

Milly didn't know how she managed to walk. Her legs felt numb, her heart a distant echo pounding somewhere behind her ribs. The coffee cup slipped from her hand, hitting the floor with a soft thud, the brown liquid pooling around her heels. She didn't stop to pick it up.

She kept walking.

Down the whitewashed hallway, past the nurse's station, past the vending machine where she and Katie had once shared a midnight snack after a college party injury. Everything felt muted. Distant.

She had come back to the hospital prepared to forgive. Prepared to talk. But she wasn't prepared for what she'd heard. Not Katie's soft plea. Not Yannis's broken reply. Not the invisible thread that tied them together even in the wake of destruction.

It wasn't bitterness she felt.

It was something else.

Loss.

Finality.

Truth.

She turned the corner too fast, nearly bumping into someone rounding it from the other side. Strong hands steadied her instantly.

"Milly."

She looked up, startled—met by Adrian's familiar face.And everything inside her cracked.

Because Adrian had always been her other safe place. The quiet in her storms. The one who never judged. Who held space without demanding anything in return.

He took one look at her tear-streaked face and his entire expression shifted. "What happened?"

She shook her head. "I... I heard them talking. Yiannis never loved me Adrian. He never did"

His eyes narrowed. "Milly..."

Milly nodded, her voice brittle. "She asked him to marry me. As a favor."

Adrian blinked.

Milly let out a breathless, sad little laugh. "And he didn't say no, Adrian. He didn't say no. He just knelt beside her like she was the most precious thing in the world. Like he'd break apart just holding her hand."

Adrian's face tensed, unreadable.

Milly whispered, "He has been in love with her for a long time, hasn't he?"

Adrian didn't speak for a long moment.

Then: "Yes."

The word hit like ice down her spine.

No hesitation. No softening.

Just truth.

Milly folded her arms across her chest like it could hold her together. "Then why is he still pretending?"

Adrian's eyes flicked toward the hallway she had just come from, his jaw tight. "Maybe because he thinks it's what you want."

"I did," she said. "Before I knew what real love looked like."

She sniffed, swiping at her eyes with her sleeve. "She didn't seduce him. She didn't steal him. He was hers before he was ever mine."

Adrian looked at her, and something softened in his eyes.

"You're braver than most people," he said.

Milly shook her head. "No, I'm just tired of lying to myself."

They stood in silence for a moment.

Then she asked, "You are in love with her too, are you not?. I see the way you look at her. I always thought that you two would end up together".

Adrian didn't answer.

He didn't need to.

His silence was louder than words.

Milly nodded, her voice breaking. "We're a mess, huh?"

He gave a sad smile. "The kind of mess only love can make."

She let out a quiet laugh—shaky, but real.

Then she reached for his hand, squeezed it.

"Take care of her if he can't," she whispered.

Adrian's eyes darkened with something quiet. Something raw.

"I always have," he said.