Library
Maghanap
Home / Romance / A Kiss For Every Bruise / When Fatherhood Civilize Monsters

Share

When Fatherhood Civilize Monsters

Author: Mayemura Special
last update Huling Na-update: 2025-12-20 23:09:34

Alejandro

Miguel did not speak right away. He rarely did when the silence mattered. We were seated on the terrace just beyond the playroom, the late afternoon light slanting low across the stone.

Kayla’s laughter drifted faintly through the open doors, soft, unguarded, the sound of a child who had forgotten to be afraid for at least a moment. Miguel sat with his legs crossed, gloves on as always, fingers loosely folded over his knee. He watched the horizon, not me.

I broke first. “I thought loving her would be enough,” I said quietly. “I really did.” Miguel’s head tilted slightly, an invitation, not a push.

“I told myself that if Gwen knew she was safe now, if she knew Mason couldn’t touch her again, that it would… overwrite the rest.” I let out a breath that felt heavier than it should have. “That it would be simple.”

Miguel exhaled through his nose. Not amusement. Recognition. “Nothing that follows prolonged trauma is simple,” he said. “Especially not love.”

I nodded once. My jaw
Patuloy na basahin ang aklat na ito nang libre
I-scan ang code upang i-download ang App
Locked Chapter
Nakaraang Kabanata Susunod na kabanata

Pinakabagong kabanata

  • A Kiss For Every Bruise    When Fatherhood Civilize Monsters

    Alejandro Miguel did not speak right away. He rarely did when the silence mattered. We were seated on the terrace just beyond the playroom, the late afternoon light slanting low across the stone. Kayla’s laughter drifted faintly through the open doors, soft, unguarded, the sound of a child who had forgotten to be afraid for at least a moment. Miguel sat with his legs crossed, gloves on as always, fingers loosely folded over his knee. He watched the horizon, not me.I broke first. “I thought loving her would be enough,” I said quietly. “I really did.” Miguel’s head tilted slightly, an invitation, not a push.“I told myself that if Gwen knew she was safe now, if she knew Mason couldn’t touch her again, that it would… overwrite the rest.” I let out a breath that felt heavier than it should have. “That it would be simple.”Miguel exhaled through his nose. Not amusement. Recognition. “Nothing that follows prolonged trauma is simple,” he said. “Especially not love.”I nodded once. My jaw

  • A Kiss For Every Bruise    Justice Before Healing Is Just Another Violation

    Adrian’s POVKayla fell asleep with her fist wrapped around my thumb. She had done that more often lately, reaching for me without looking, as if she trusted I would still be there when her eyes closed. Miguel called it object permanence rebuilding. I called it the most terrifying privilege of my life.I sat beside her bed long after her breathing evened out, watching the slow rise and fall of her chest, the faint crease between her brows that only appeared when she dreamed. Some nights she still whimpered. Some nights she slept like nothing had ever touched her. Tonight, she slept deep.I eased my hand free carefully, like disarming a bomb, and stepped into the hallway. Miguel was waiting near the window, arms folded, gaze fixed on the dark stretch of ocean beyond the estate. He didn’t turn when I approached. “She held your hand,” he said. “Yeah.” I smiled. “That’s new.” “So is a lot of this.”He finally looked at me then. Really looked. Not the Salvador heir. Not the strategist. Ju

  • A Kiss For Every Bruise    The Space Between Watching and Waiting

    Adrian’s POV I learned something uncomfortable that week. Holding the line with Kayla, staying calm, consistent, kind, was easier than holding the line with myself. Because every instinct I had still screamed toward Gwen. I woke up every morning with the same reflexive thought: Has she broken yet? And the shame followed immediately after, because Gwen breaking was the last thing I wanted, and the first thing Camilla was trying to engineer. Miguel noticed before I said anything. “You’re hovering again,” he said one night, dropping into the chair across from me with a beer I hadn’t asked for but accepted anyway. “I’m monitoring,” I corrected. He snorted. “You have six eyes on Cruise territory, two financial trackers on Dicarpo movements, and a shadow on Dr. Weston’s clinic. That’s not monitoring. That’s pacing in tactical form.” I didn’t deny it. The screen in front of me showed a still image from the salon Gwen had been taken to earlier that day. She sat in a chair, a cape draped

  • A Kiss For Every Bruise    Still Standing After

    Adrian’s POV That night, after Kayla finally fell asleep, I sat on the floor outside her room longer than necessary. Miguel had told me not to hover. Be present, not looming, he’d said. But old instincts died hard. I listened to the soft rhythm of her breathing through the cracked door, the occasional hitch that came before sleep deepened again. She clutched the corner of her blanket like it might disappear if she let go. I stayed anyway. Because the quiet after a breakthrough was when fear crept back in. Not hers. Mine. I kept replaying the morning in my head, the toast, the drop, the way her body had gone rigid as if bracing for impact. That kind of readiness didn’t come from one bad day. It came from repetition. From patterns carved deep enough to feel inevitable. And I hated Mason Burkeley with a cold, precise fury that scared me in its calm. Miguel joined me eventually, lowering himself onto the floor beside me without a word. We sat shoulder to shoulder, backs against the w

  • A Kiss For Every Bruise    The Joy Of Fatherhood

    Adrian’s POVThat night, Kayla did not ask for the nightlight. She had asked for it every night since she arrived, sometimes twice, sometimes with trembling fingers, sometimes already crying before the request left her mouth. The light had been her talisman, a weak sun against the dark where memories lived. Miguel had told me not to take it away. Let her release it herself, he had said. Control taken is trauma repeated. Control chosen is healing.So when she climbed into bed and simply lay there, her small body curled on her side, eyes tracking the ceiling fan as it turned slowly above us, I noticed immediately. “You want the light?” I asked, keeping my voice casual, like it wasn’t a moment that mattered. She shook her head.“Okay,” I said, and tucked the blanket around her shoulders. I stayed. Didn’t rush. Didn’t hover. I just sat on the edge of the bed like I had every night, reading aloud from the same book, the one with the rabbit who learned how to be brave in very small ways.H

  • A Kiss For Every Bruise    When Silence Pushes Back

    Adrian’s POVThe days after that morning did not soften. Instead, they deepened.Kayla did not test me with messes anymore. She had crossed that bridge and catalogued the result. Dropping things no longer gave her information. So she shifted tactics, the way traumatized children do when they realize the obvious traps don’t spring. She tested me with distance.It started subtly. She stopped running to me when she woke from naps. Stopped calling out when she couldn’t find a toy. If I entered a room, she didn’t look up right away. Not avoidance exactly, more like restraint. As if she were learning how much of herself she could safely withhold.Miguel noticed it before I did. “She’s checking whether you disappear when she doesn’t perform,” he said one evening, watching Kayla line up her stuffed animals with almost military precision. “Attention that has to be earned isn’t safety. She’s waiting to see if yours expires.” That sentence lodged itself in my chest and stayed there.I had built

Higit pang Kabanata

Maaari mong magustuhan

Galugarin at basahin ang magagandang nobela
Libreng basahin ang magagandang nobela sa GoodNovel app. I-download ang mga librong gusto mo at basahin kahit saan at anumang oras.
Libreng basahin ang mga aklat sa app
I-scan ang code para mabasa sa App
DMCA.com Protection Status