Secrets of Us A Forbidden Love Romance (Alina)

Chapter 74

Not Ready to Forgive

My stomach turns, still empty since I never ate the plate of eggs I left in the living

room.

I sit on the edge of my bed, staring at my wrist, my fingers tracing the thin, raised line of the scar. It's usually the only thing that grounds me when panic takes over, when the weight of old memories threatens to break me.

It's not doing much to help me right now.

The room feels too quiet, too still, as my mind takes me back to that day.

The day everything changed.

1 see the inside of the car, hear the hum of the engine, feel the warm sun

streaming through the windows. Alex is in the passenger seat, flipping through the stations on the

radio.

I'm in the backseat, leaning forward, reaching to poke his ear because he refuses to put on my station pick.

He swats at my hand, and I giggle.

I give him a peaceful thirty seconds before I lick my finger and try again.,

“Alina, quit it!” he says, but his voice is playful, and I giggle, doing it again.

He spins as much as he can in his seat and swats at me with both hands, slapping my shoulders until I'm laughing so hard my stomach hurts. Dad glances at us, grinning. "You are both the most annoying kids.”

The memory shifts and slows, the edges blurring.

The car enters the intersection.

A flash of red streaks across my vision.

crunching metal drowning out my scream. The car jerks sideways, and we're spinning, flipping, tumbling into chaos. I smell the sharp tang

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Not Ready to Forgive

like needles.

moving,

watch their still bodies

the roots, trying to pull

It's my fault.

him. I was the reason he wasn't

And I survived.

thought twists inside me, sharp and cruel. Why me? Why did I get to walk away when Alex didn't? When

the hem of my shirt. My shoulders shake,

this when I feel like I cannot keep it at bay, all I want to

like the ground beneath me

think that's why it was so easy for me to keep Zaid at a distance. He was so careless; he hurt someone with a car. It was something I thought

was Aiden has me feeling guilty all over

to steady

an instant,

I stop short. A shattered lamp lies in pieces on the floor, and Zaid and Aiden are standing across from each other, breathing

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3:16 pm

Not Ready to Forgive

of them even glance in my direction, too focused

his voice low.

he's in

it again if I had to. You're my brother,

heartbreaking to see the relief in Aiden's face, like he believed with

to see Zaid express his

sorry," Aiden says, his voice breaking. "I'm

doesn't soften. "Don't be sorry. Be

looks to the grounds,

"Don't waste the chance I gave you. Take