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CHAPTER 22
publish date:
2026-09-19 21:32:16
Latest chapter
He had always been mine CHAPTER 25
KILLIAN POV I woke up to the sound of small feet in the hallway.For a few seconds I didn’t move. The apartment was still dim. Maya’s arm was warm across my waist, her breathing slow against the back of my shoulder. The pillow smelled like her shampoo. Everything about the moment was ordinary and safe, and my mind stayed exactly where my body was—inside the quiet of our bedroom, inside the life we had built on purpose.No restaurant. No expensive table. No calm voice across from me.Just home.Leigh’s feet stopped outside our door. There was a short, dramatic pause, then the door creaked open and a small voice whispered, “Is it breakfast time?”Maya made a sleepy sound against my back. I reached back without looking and rested my hand on her hip.“I’ll get it,” I murmured.I got up, pulled on a T-shirt, and stepped into the hallway. Leigh was already waiting in her mismatched pajamas, hair sticking up on one side, the official expression of a child who had been awake and patient
He had always been mine CHAPTER 24
BRANDON POV I walked out of the bathroom with the black robe loosely tied at my waist.Steam still clung to my skin. My hair was damp, dripping occasional drops onto the dark fabric. The penthouse was quiet and dimly lit, the city glittering beyond the windows like something distant and unimportant. I sat down on the edge of the bed, elbows resting on my knees, and let the last of the shower’s heat fade from my shoulders.That was when I remembered.In the rush of standing up from the table, of watching Killian walk out of the restaurant like he couldn’t put distance between us fast enough, something had slipped from his jacket pocket and fallen near the leg of his chair. A plain white handkerchief, folded once. I had bent down and picked it up without thinking while the waiter was still clearing the plates. I had put it in my own pocket and walked out with it like it already belonged to me.I stood, crossed to the chair where I had thrown my trousers earlier, and reached into the po
He had always been mine CHAPTER 23
FLASHBACK - BRANDON POV 17 YRS OLDThe scissors made a soft, steady sound in the quiet bathroom.Killian sat on the closed lid of the toilet with an old towel draped around his shoulders, head tipped slightly forward the way I had told him to. Afternoon light came through the frosted window in a dull white square. The rest of the house was empty—my parents were still at the office, the way they almost always were on weekdays. It was just the two of us and the quiet metallic whisper of the blades.“Hold still,” I said.“I am holding still.”“You’re talking. That’s not still.”He made a small, annoyed sound but stopped moving. I set my fingers against the side of his head to steady him and made another careful pass with the scissors. His hair had gotten long enough to fall into his eyes again. He hated that. He always pushed it back with the heel of his hand when he was drawing, leaving graphite smudges across his forehead. Today he had shown up at my door after school with it sticking
He had always been mine CHAPTER 22
BRANDON POV I drove home in silence.The city lights slid past the windows in long, unbroken streaks. My hands stayed steady on the wheel. My face stayed calm. From the outside there would have been nothing to notice just another man in a dark car moving through late traffic. Inside, everything had gone quiet in a way that felt almost hollow. The dinner sat behind my eyes in clean, sharp pieces. Killian’s rigid shoulders. The hate in his voice when I asked about his daughter. The exact second his expression changed when I mentioned his hair.He had looked at me like I had reached into something private and pulled it into the light without permission.Good.I pulled into the private garage, parked, and took the elevator up without seeing any of it. The penthouse was dark. I dropped my keys on the console, loosened my tie, and walked straight through to the primary bathroom without turning on more lights than I needed.The bathroom was large and quiet—marble, glass, a deep freestanding
He had always been mine CHAPTER 21
KILLIAN POV I stayed under the shower until the water ran cool.When I finally stepped out, dried off, and pulled on a pair of sweatpants, the apartment was quiet. Leigh’s door was cracked the way she liked it. The living room lamp had been turned off. A thin line of light showed under our bedroom door.Maya was already in bed when I pushed it open, sitting up against the headboard with a book open on her knees. She looked up and smiled the second she saw me.“Hey. Feel better?”“Yeah.” I closed the door softly behind me. “Water helped.”She closed the book and set it on the nightstand. I walked over and sat on the edge of the mattress. The raw anger from the restaurant was still sitting somewhere under my ribs, but the shower had burned the worst of the shaking out of me. Maya reached out and brushed her fingers along my forearm, ordinary and warm.“You were quiet when you got home,” she said. “I didn’t want to push. But if the dinner was that bad, you can tell me.”“It wasn’t bad.”
He had always been mine CHAPTER 20
KILLIAN POV I took the long way home on purpose.The city felt too loud and too quiet at the same time. Every streetlight I passed under still carried the echo of Brandon’s voice talking about my hair like those afternoons in his bathroom still belonged to him. The scissors. The towel around my shoulders. The careful way he used to tip my head forward under the water. I hated that he had dragged any of it back into the open. I hated that for even one second the memories had felt familiar instead of dangerous.By the time I reached our building the hate had settled into something harder and cleaner than it had been in years.I climbed the stairs instead of taking the elevator so I would have more time to lock everything down behind my face. When I opened the apartment door the lamp in the living room was on, but the rest of the place was quiet. Maya was on the couch with her legs tucked under her, a book open in her lap. She looked up and smiled the second she saw me.“Hey. You’re bac
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