Secrets of Us A Forbidden Love Romance (Alina)

Chapter 203

Gossip-1

My heart breaks.

Not figuratively. At least it doesn't feel like that. It feels physical. Like my heart is actually cracked open, filling me with blood.

Not poetic, like how people describe it in movies.

It's loud in my head. It shatters, devastating and brutal. I can feel it tear open in my chest, like something vital inside me just split apart. Like I'm losing a part of myself all over again.

Losing my family was one thing, they were ripped from, taken from me. I couldn't fight for them, I couldn't see them.

But Zaid?

He's standing right in front of me and still slipping through my fingers.

"No," I whisper, my voice broken, my knees shaking.

I stumble back a step, vision blurring. The world around me bends, spinning slightly as the reality of it crashes down on me.

Zaid's still looking at me with all that love in his eyes, but he's letting me go. Tears spill down my cheeks, hot and endless. My throat clenches so tightly it hurts to breathe. The

ache in my chest blooms into agony and I can't stop it; I break.

My knees buckle.

me before I hit the

me as I collapse against him, gasping like I'm drowning. Because that's what it feels like. Like the oxygen has been ripped out of the world and I

whispers, holding my cheeks.

the fabric like it's the only thing

1/3

Gossip 1

are violent, shaking through my

don't do this. I'll change... I'll get better. I swear, I'll try harder. Just stay.

as he looks down at me, eyes filled with more pain than I can stand to see. "We'll find our way back to each other. We will. I love you, Alina. I

thumb under my eye as another tear falls. "But if I need to step away

can't find myself without you,"

face with both hands. His thumbs sweep over my cheeks like he's trying to memorize me. "I don't want that for

I

I see your value, your strength, your brilliance. But if you can't see it, then I need to step back

face for something to hold on to. I press my lips to his, needing the connection, needing the hope that maybe

But he stops me.

Alina" he whispers, his voice breaking. He shakes his

says my name shatters me all

you, as a friend. Only

as I calm my breathing, my arms tightening around him like I

will make sense without you," I

holds me through it. He doesn't speak. Just rocks me gently,

everything from me, when exhaustion