LOGINAaron’s POVMy voice cracked when I reached for her. “Mum, please.” She flinched like my hand was poison. Like I’d turned into something disgusting, something she wanted nothing to do with. Her eyes were already red and shiny, full of pain I’d carved into her. She shook her head, slow and final, and my chest split open. “You are not my son,” she said. She didn’t scream it. She just let the words fall, flat and lifeless. “I don’t want to see you again. Ever. You should leave. You’re not needed here.” And that was it. Whatever was left inside me just… vanished. Not broken. Not bruised. Gone. I dropped to my knees. Didn’t even mean to. The floor was freezing, but it barely registered. I wrapped my arms around her legs, desperate, like I was a little kid again and she might stay if I just held on. Like this was still home. “Mum, please,” I begged, sobbing. “I’m begging you. I don’t have anyone else. I swear I don’t. Please.” She didn’t touch me. Didn’t shove me off. Sh
Aaron’s POVThere had been weeks of complete silence. Weeks that had reduced the world to a small, crushing box that I was trapped inside. I had been discharged from the hospital a few days ago, but I had found that leaving that antiseptic room had not set me free—it had merely made life even more cumbersome. My home, that once had been a refuge for me, now seemed empty, resonating with every beat of my heart like a morbid reminder that life was going on, even though I was stuck in suspended animation.Every fiber of me hurt. My cuts and bruises were only the physical manifestation of the pain, but the ache within me, the hollow feeling, the flux of guilt that roiled through me like an insatiable monster, that was mine. Cheryl and Mandy had become my lifelines, coming by periodically to make sure I was holding together somewhat, but those relationships had frayed too. I can see it—the tension marking Cheryl's face, the tired slump of Mandy's shoulders as she smiled, but they still f
Connor's POVMandy was deep asleep next to me, curled into me like she was meant to be there, like she had always been there.My phone buzzed quietly against the couch cushions. The screen emitted a soft glow against the darkness in the room. I looked down without curiosity, already aware of its contents.Boarding for your flight will start in an hour.I shut my eyes.I had bought the flight during the movie, softly, delicately, as if whispering in an actual physical location would shatter whatever temporary world we had constructed for ourselves. Texas was calling me back: family, unresolved business, rage that still lingered in my chest, but parting with her didn’t feel right.Coming here had been a mistake. A beautiful one. The kind that undoes you slowly.I bent down and planted a kiss on her forehead. Then another one, and then another, as if the only way I could halt the passage of time was by kissing her enough.She stirred,“Connor?” She spoke with a voice thick with sleep,
Mandy's POVHis presence seemed to be everywhere.It was in the way the air seemed warmer when he moved, in the quiet gravity that pulled my attention back to him no matter where I looked. My heart kept tripping over itself, skipping beats like it had forgotten how to function properly. Every nerve felt alive, buzzing, embarrassingly aware, a pool already forming in-between my thighs.He finished hanging the rest of the paintings with precise care, stepped back to inspect them like it really mattered that they were straight, then returned to the couch and went back to his toast: calm, composed, almost innocent.As if he hadn't just unravelled me completely.I stood there a second longer than was necessary, forcing myself to breathe like a normal person before walking back over and sitting beside him.“Thank you,” I said softly. “For helping with the paintings.”He nodded, swallowing the last bite, wiping his hands on a napkin. Casual. Grounded. The exact opposite of how I felt.“So,”
Connor’s POVMy hand shaking, I knocked on Mandy’s door.I was going to miss my flight. I knew that. The notification had already buzzed twice on my phone, final boarding call warnings I kept ignoring like background noise. I didn't care. Texas could wait. Everything could wait.She'd said she'd be coming home today, taking a day off work. Said it like it meant nothing. Now, though, she was the only thing keeping my sanity stitched together by a fraying thread.Jack had already left that morning, muttering something about the office and deadlines and “damage control.” He was mad at me. I knew that but his reasons felt distant, almost invalid compared to the chaos roaring in my head. Nothing mattered more than the fact that the man I'd called my best friend was a criminal. A killer. And the person I loved most in the world-my brother-had been caught right in the blast radius.I felt as if my ears were going to rip from my head.My heart was racing so hard, it felt like it would tear
Aaron's POV The words slipped from my lips before I could hold them back. They were silent, ugly, and definite.“I killed him.”Connor remained perfectly motionless for a second.He just looked at me.I studied the look on his face—the way his eyebrows came together, the way his mouth opened slightly as if he'd misunderstood. As if his mind was literally slamming the door shut on the sentence. This was a look I'd seen on him before, back when we were kids, and something just hadn’t clicked.“You—” he began, then halted. “What do you mean you killed him?”It wasn’t loud yet. It was a confused tone. A tentative tone. As if he was getting near a wild beast that might bite him.“My stepfather,” I began, my voice thick with emotion. “Paul. I"You killed him?" Connor cut in, his tone sharper now. "Saying it like it's—like it's a phrase you'd practiced. What do you mean you killed your step-dad?"I swallowed. My chest was far too small for my lungs. “It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t—God, Con




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