LOGINShare
Chapter 10: Ella.
publish date:
2026-08-25 00:37:45
Latest chapter
Fragile bones, iron hearts. Chapter 13: The Reflection.
The hospital lights were too white. They made everything look like it belonged somewhere else — somewhere that wasn't real.Clarisse lay on the exam table while a nurse taped a cotton ball to the crook of her arm. Devane stood against the far wall, arms crossed, jaw tight, refusing to sit down. She hadn't left the room once. Not for coffee, not for air, not even when the doctor asked if she was family."She's my sister," Devane had said, and something about the way she said it made the doctor stop asking questions.The results came back an hour later. Blood work, normal. CT scan, clear. No aneurysm. No bleed. No tumor, no fracture, no explanation."Physically," the doctor said, choosing her words like she was walking across ice, "there's nothing wrong with her."Devane's voice was flat. "Then why did she collapse? Why was there blood?""Sometimes the body keeps score in ways we can't scan for." The doctor glanced at Clarisse, and there was something careful in her expression — the lo
Fragile bones, iron hearts. Chapter 12 :The dying swan
Clarisse walked to the center of the floor. Closed her eyes. Breath In and out, then danced.The music was Swan Lake. The dying swan. The final, trembling movements of a creature losing its last breath.Clarisse had danced this piece a hundred times. She knew every step, every gesture, every rise and fall. But tonight, it was different. Tonight, she wasn't performing. She wasn't even dancing, really. She was just moving. Letting her body do what it knew how to do while her mind wandered elsewhere.To the garage. To the blood. To the way Devane had looked at her when she said you did that. you. not me.To the kitchen. To the handhold. To the way Devane's fingers had felt, warm and rough against her own.To the photo. To Ella's grin. To Devane's hand on Ella's knee.The movements faltered. Clarisse stumbled. Caught herself but Kept going going.When the music ended, she was standing in the center of the floor, chest heaving, sweat dripping into her eyes. Her feet were bleeding again. Sh
Fragile bones, iron hearts. Chapter 11: Nothing Changed.
The phone buzzed on the carpet.Clarisse ignored it. She was curled on her side, knees tucked to her chest, staring at the wall. The crack in the screen had spread like a spiderweb, thin lines branching out from the point of impact. She'd thrown it hard. Harder than she'd meant to. The case had saved it from shattering completely, but the damage was there. Permanent.The phone buzzed again.She closed her eyes. The morning light pressed against her eyelids, pink and insistent. She'd barely slept. Every time she'd drifted off, the dream came back—the kitchen, the handhold, Devane's voice saying okay like it meant something. Then she'd wake, and the absence would hit her all over again.She didn't understand it.That was the worst part. She couldn't explain why Devane's silence hurt so much. They weren't friends. They weren't anything. Devane was just the daughter of the man her aunt married. A stranger who happened to live in the same house. A girl with cold eyes and a motorcycle and a
Fragile bones, iron hearts. Chapter 10: Ella.
Clarisse nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak.Ella kept talking. Something about a date. Something about riding on the back of the motorcycle. Something about how Devane's hands felt on her waist. Clarisse heard fragments, pieces, the words slicing through her like glass.She'd thought—stupidly, pathetically—that the moment in the kitchen had meant something. The handhold. The whispered okay. The way Devane had looked at her like she was the only person in the world.But Devane had disappeared for a week. And now she was texting Ella. Taking Ella on rides. Putting her hands on Ella's waist.Clarisse was nothing. Just the stepsister in the other room. Just the girl who'd bandaged her ribs and thrown a wrench and held her hand in the kitchen.Stupid, she thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid."I have to go," she said abruptly. "Class.""Oh, okay! Text me later. And tell Devane I said hi!"Clarisse walked away. Her legs were numb. Her chest was hollow. The hallway stretched on forever, f
Fragile bones, iron hearts. Chapter 9: The distance.
She hadn't seen Devane for a week.Not at breakfast. Not in the hallways of the too-big house. Only once at a compulsory family dinner. The days blurred together—grey light through the windows, the distant roar of the motorcycle at odd hours, the creak of floorboards that might have been Devane or might have been the house settling. Clarisse couldn't tell anymore.The morning after the garage, she'd woken to an empty kitchen. The coffee she'd made sat cold in the pot. The apple was still on the table, brown and withered. Devane's water bottle was gone too.Clarisse had stood there for a long moment, staring at the empty doorway where Devane had stood, where Devane had held her hand, where Devane had whispered okay like it was a promise. Then she'd walked to school on autopilot, her feet bandaged, her chest hollow.She didn't see Devane that day. Or the next. Or the next.Aunt Helena asked about the bruises on Devane's face at dinner one night—"What happened, darling? Were you in an a
Fragile bones, iron hearts. Chapter 8: Message Received.
She walked to the kitchen. Her bare feet slapped the cold tile.Then she heard it.A crash from the garage—metal on concrete, a sharp clang that echoed through the walls. Then a grunt. Male. Deep. Then another crash, louder, followed by Devane's voice, low and cold."You picked the wrong night."The unmistakable sound of a fist hitting flesh.Clarisse's hand froze on the refrigerator handle. Her heart stopped. Then slammed against her ribs so hard she felt it in her throat.She was moving before she could think. Her bare feet slapped the hallway floor. The garage door was slightly ajar—Devane hadn't latched it—and Clarisse pushed it open with both hands.The garage was chaos.Devane's motorcycle lay on its side. The mirror had snapped off and skidded across the concrete. A metal shelf had collapsed—wrenches, screwdrivers, paint cans scattered like shrapnel. The single overhead bulb swung wildly on its cord, throwing shadows that lurched and spun and made everything look like a nightma
You May Also Like
In Love With My Hot Stepbrothers
Alexia Praks28.4K viewsUnder His Command
Osarumwense Osakue 31.2K viewsMaddox, The Broken Alpha
Abigail Phillips202.1K viewsSuck Me Dry
Shelagh Milano48.4K viewsI Caught My Boyfriend With A Man.So I Slept With His Brother
Kelly white385 viewsTHE BEAST-BOUND CAPTAIN'S CAPTIVE
BLACKROSE784 viewsABYSS OF HIS SEED
Junñior430 viewsI Hate How Much I Want You
KeeKee250 views
