ASHER
Anxiety is a feeling I’m all too familiar with.
I wear it like a second skin. And like always, I bury it under layers of calm and control. I smile when I’m supposed to. I nod at the right people, say the right things. But underneath it all, I’m a mess of nerves.
Because today… today is everything.
Today, I stop waiting. I stop hiding behind duty, behind fear, behind the expectations of a father who’s ruled me even in his silence.
Today, I become king.
Even if it’s just temporary, acting king while my father lies in that bed with too many tubes and not enough breath, it gives me the power to choose. To act.
And I know what I want.
Althea.
If she’ll still have me.
I think about the look on her face the last time we spoke. The way she looked at me when I reached for her. The way her voice shook when she looked at me, scared to ask if I knew. I did. I knew, and I still let her walk away, because I was scared. Scared of what it meant. Scared of what her secret could be. Because one t
