Masuk~Amelia~
I sat in the circle too. That part mattered.
![]()
~Amelia~I was in the kitchen minding my own business, tea, crackers, the baby doing her usual morning gymnastics against my ribs when his mother walked in.My first thought was: so this is how it ends.My second thought was: I should have eaten more of those crackers while I had the chance.
~Amelia~I sat in the circle too. That part mattered.It was quiet for the first minute in the way that things are quiet when everyone is waiting for someone else to start. I let it sit for a second and then I just said: "I know some of you have questions you haven't been able to ask. I figured this was easier than everyone wondering separately."
~Amelia~Serena showed up at the door with a gift bag and the energy of someone who had been dying to talk for three weeks and was finally being allowed to."Okay first of all," She stepped inside without being invited, shoved the bag at my chest, and pulled me into a hug before I could say anything. "You look amazing. You're huge and glowing and I hate you a little bit.""Hi to you too."
~Amelia~And at the edge of the treeline, watching it all unfold like she was supervising, a woman I didn't recognize. Short hair, lifeless eyes that made her scarier than the fighters.And behind her, Blake.He stood with his hands in his pockets. Watching.
~Amelia~I smelled coffee before I even made it downstairs, which was the first good thing about the morning.The second thing was considerably more distracting.Kaden was standing at the counter when I walked in, shirtless, sweatpants sitting low, hair still a mess from sleep, holding a mug like he hadn't just committed a crime against my ability to think clearly. I stopped in the doorway for exactly one second too long.He didn't even turn around. "You're staring like you haven’t seen me before.""No, I’m not." I crossed to the table and sat down. He turned around then, and the look on his face said he'd already figured out exactly what the situation was. He set a mug in front of me, leaned down until his face was level with mine, and said very quietly: "Your heart rate went up the second you walked in."I picked up the mug and looked somewhere else. "That's because I walked down stairs. Cardio.""Sure it is." He pulled out the chair across from me, sat down, and flipped open the n
~Amelia~Caleb called a meeting.He put a single sheet of paper on the table. Three bullet points. I'd learned that if Caleb needed a full page to explain something, the thing was very bad. One page meant it was just bad."Blake has found a partner," he stated.
AMELIA’S P.O.VHe dropped me off at the office but I didn’t stay there long. All it took was fifteen minutes of people staring at me with pitying glances for me to decide that I had enough. I wasn’t going to stand for it and I wasn’t going to endure it. They didn’t know what Kaden and I’s relationshi
AMELIA’S P.O.VTo say that I was the center of attention the entire day would have been an understatement. I was approached by at least four different people at different times of the day wanting to know what was going on between Kaden and I and the strange woman in the hospital. For the most part, I
AMELIA’S P.O.VAfter training, I waited for Kaden to pick me up but he never did. I didn’t carry my phone out because I never expected that I would run into this problem. I waited for thirty minutes after training, everyone had left and it was just Ian and I when I resigned myself to the fact that he
KADEN’S P.O.VIt was shame that did not allow me return home to Amelia, shame that I had failed her, shame that I had somehow led her to believe that she was less important that she was. I didn’t know how to multitask, it wasn’t a skill I had learned very well growing up. I had been told to focus on







