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.

every life, there was a person meant to wound you so

detached smile curved my lips, but it never

said, my voice light, almost

sun beat down on us, but he looked frozen.

as his lips parted slightly, then curled into something almost pitiful.

by

the smiles of strangers–the joy of

the corner of my frame, there was only one figure hunched over on a bench, his face buried in his hands. The only one who didn’t

us?” A small, excited

22:33

Years of Love, Seven Minutes

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Chapter 13

to see a boy, no older than five, clutching, a flower crown while his sister giggled beside him, reaching up to place it

lips for the

I said, raising my

for a moment, I thought of another

ago.

it onto my wrist, his eyes full of childish devotion

always protect you, Celeste. I won’t let anyone

been no

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