LOGINELON’S POVI used to believe that the best things in life happened to people who were prepared for them.People who had a clear path.People who knew what they wanted.People who understood where they belonged.I had never been one of those people.My entire life had felt like a question I was constantly trying to answer. I spent years searching for pieces of myself, trying to understand why I felt different, why I always carried the feeling that something important was missing.I thought finding the truth would finally make me feel whole.But I learned something unexpected.Sometimes the truth does not complete you.Sometimes the person who stands beside you while you face the truth does.And for me, that person was Fort.I sat quietly in the room we had slowly started calling ours.It was strange how a place could change because of one person.The room itself was nothing extraordinary.The same walls.The same furniture.The same quiet atmosphere.But somehow, with him there, it fel
ELON’S POVI had spent so much of my life believing that the future was something I had to survive.Not something I could look forward to.Every tomorrow carried the possibility of another disappointment, another betrayal, another truth waiting to destroy whatever little stability I had managed to create. I had become so used to preparing for the worst that I no longer knew how to accept anything good without questioning when it would disappear.That was the cruelest part.Not the pain itself.The expectation of it.Even in moments of peace, some part of me remained alert, waiting for the moment everything would fall apart.But lately, something had changed.I was still afraid sometimes.I still had questions I could not answer.I still carried pieces of a past I was trying to understand.But for the first time, I was not facing those things alone.Fort was there.And somehow, that simple fact had become the thing that changed everything.I sat quietly on the edge of the balcony, watc
ELON’S POVI never imagined that the hardest part of finding someone would be believing they were really mine to keep.Not in the sense of ownership.I would never want that.But in the sense of finally allowing myself to believe that something good could exist without disappearing the moment I reached for it.Fort had become that kind of impossible thing.A person I never expected.A feeling I never prepared for.A place I never knew I was searching for.And maybe that was why I was still learning how to accept it.I watched him from across the room as he prepared coffee, his expression focused like even making a simple drink required a strategy.I smiled before I could stop myself.“What?”His voice came without him looking at me.I raised an eyebrow.“You knew I was smiling?”“You have a certain expression.”I laughed softly.“That’s unfair.”“What is?”“You can read me too easily.”He finally turned toward me.“Is that a bad thing?”I looked at him.“No.”The answer came faster th
ELON’S POVThere was a strange kind of peace that came with finally accepting something you had spent your entire life running from.For years, I had been afraid of depending on anyone.I thought needing someone meant giving them the ability to hurt me.I thought love was dangerous because anything important could be taken away.But Fort had changed the way I saw everything.He did not make me feel weak for wanting him.He did not make me feel ashamed for needing comfort.He made me understand that there was a difference between depending on someone and choosing someone.And I chose him.Every day.Not because I was afraid to be alone.Because life felt better with him beside me.I looked at Fort as he sat across from me, quietly reading through the information in front of him.Even when he was trying to relax, part of him was always alert.Always prepared.Always protecting.Sometimes I wondered if he even knew how to exist without carrying the weight of everyone else.“You’re doing
FORT’S POVI used to think the most dangerous thing in the world was losing control.That was why I built routines.Why I planned.I always calculated the possible outcomes before making a decision.Control gave me the illusion that I could prevent pain.But Elon had shown me something I never expected.Some things were worth risking uncertainty for.Some people were worth trusting even when there was no guarantee they would stay.And that was what made him different.He was not a weakness I needed to hide.He was the one thing that made me remember I was still human.I found him sitting outside, watching the sky as the evening settled around us.There was something peaceful about him now.Not because everything was perfect.It wasn’t.We both knew that.There were still things waiting for us.Things we could not ignore forever.But for once, we were allowing ourselves a moment that belonged only to us.I walked toward him.“You disappeared.”He looked up and smiled.“I was outside.”
FORT’S POVThere were things I had spent years believing about myself.That I was difficult to understand.That I was better alone.That needing someone was a weakness I could not afford.I had built my entire life around control because control was easier than admitting I was afraid.Afraid of losing people.Afraid of trusting the wrong person.Afraid that if someone truly saw everything I carried, they would eventually decide I was too much.Then Elon came into my life and somehow did the impossible.He saw everything.The parts I hid.The parts I considered flaws.The parts I had convinced myself no one needed to know.And instead of walking away, he stayed.I looked at him sitting beside me, his attention focused on the book in his hands, even though I knew he had been reading the same page for several minutes.“You’re pretending to read.”His eyes lifted immediately.“I am reading.”“You haven’t turned a page.”A small smile appeared on his face.“You notice too much.”I leaned b
FORT’S POV“Elon’s father worked for The Circle.”The words settled into the room with a kind of quiet violence that felt worse than the gunfire from earlier.For a moment, nobody moved.Rain crashed through the shattered windows behind us, cold wind sweeping across the study floor where two bodies
FORT’S POV No one stirred. Rain battered the study windows while the corpse lay twisted on the floor, dark blood spreading beneath him. Nathaniel looked ashen—terrified rather than unwell. “Elon,” I said softly, “close the door.” He did so without question. The heavy wood thudded shut, sealin
ELON’S POV The gunshot thundered through the mansion; my ears immediately started to ring. For a split second, everything froze. Then Fort yanked me backward by the arm just as another shot sounded from upstairs and glass shattered somewhere in the darkness. “Down,” he commanded. We dropped b
ELON’S POVThere were certain sentences capable of ruining an entire evening instantly.“We found Nathaniel” was apparently one of them.“In Evelyn Vale’s old house.”That part somehow made it significantly worse.The atmosphere inside the penthouse changed so fast it felt physically violent.One s







