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Chapter 31 Can't Escape
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2025-12-02 10:49:59The weight of over a month presses down on me every morning. Thirty-four days since the kiss that rewired my brain. Walking into the Aethelgard building isn't just nerve-wracking anymore; it's a full-body exercise in pure anxiety. My shoulders are permanently hunched, my eyes constantly scanning for any sign of him. For Julian.
Pretending to forget feels impossible now. A week of that act might have been plausible, but over a month? It would be a deliberate, ongoing insult. I want to stop hurting him, but the idea of confessing that I remember everything, "Hey, I remember you kissing me" that the memory of his kiss has been playing on a loop in my mind for thirty-four days, makes my face burn with a shame so deep I want to disappear. It’s way too embarrassing.
I stop at the office's main door, my feet refusing to carry me inside. The thought of him
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