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.

spinning, flipping,

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Not Ready to Forgive

like needles.

car finally stops moving, everything is silent. Too

watch their still bodies as I taste blood in my

hands through my hair, tugging at the roots, trying to pull myself out of the memory. But it lingers, the weight of guilt pressing against

It's my fault.

distracted him. I was the

And I survived.

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

wiping at my face with the hem of my shirt. My shoulders shake, and my breath comes in uneven

suffocating, and the moments like this when I feel like I cannot keep it at bay, all I

what Aiden did, t's like the ground beneath me has been ripped

easy for me to keep Zaid at a distance. He was so careless; he hurt

to know that it was Aiden has me feeling

pull my knees to my chest, trying to steady

I'm on my feet in an instant, running out of my room and down the

living room, I stop short. A shattered lamp lies in pieces on the floor, and Zaid

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3:16 pm

Not Ready to Forgive

them even glance in my

Aiden, his voice low. "I don't

he's in

he continues. "I'd do it again if I had to. You're

in pain. It's heartbreaking to see the relief in Aiden's face, like he believed with all of himself that his brother hated

to see Zaid express his love

Aiden says, his

"Don't be sorry.

to the grounds,

fists clenched at his sides. "Don't waste the chance I gave you. Take the damn