Chapter 13

The air was filled with the soft cooing of pigeons, their wings fluttering against the bright blue sky. Children’s laughter rang through the square, pure and unburdened, a stark contrast to the silence stretching between us.

For a long time, I didn’t speak. Then, finally, I turned to Atlas.

“You don’t deserve to stay by my side, Atlas,” 1 said. “Nothing you have belongs to me. It belongs to Ivy. Wasn’t that what you intended all along?”

His face stiffened, but I didn’t stop.

“I’ve spent years living in the illusion you created, believing every lie you fed me,” I continued, my words as steady as my heartbeat. “Do you have any idea how much I hated myself when I finally saw the truth?”

His fingers twitched slightly, his entire body unmoving.

I let out a slow breath, my expression unreadable. “I hated myself for loving you.”

I let the words sink in, let them twist through the air like a blade cutting deep. “I hated myself for loving the man who destroyed everything I had.”

Atlas flinched, barely perceptible, but I caught it.

And just like that, the last remnants of anger drained from my body. I looked at the face I had known for twenty years. The man who had shared my bed for five.

And suddenly–there was no more hatred left in me.

to wound you

to my feet, gazing down at him. A soft, detached smile curved my lips, but it never reached my

voice light, almost gentle. “I will never forgive you.”

beat down on us, but he looked

slightly, then curled into something almost pitiful. “Celeste,” he whispered, “but I love you. I really, truly

away by the

of strangers–the joy of those who had never known the kind of pain I had

the corner of my frame, there was only one figure hunched over on a bench, his face buried in his hands. The only

will you take a picture for us?” A small, excited voice tugged at my

22:33

Love,

73.5%

Chapter 13

than five, clutching, a flower crown while his sister

smile broke across my lips for

I said, raising my camera.

freezing their innocence in time. And just for a moment, I thought of another day, two decades

ago.

and slipped it onto my wrist, his

protect you, Celeste. I won’t let anyone

had been no lies in his eyes—only me.

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