Lahat ng Kabanata ng Hate Me, Desire Me: Kabanata 41

TIARA MCKENZIE'S POVThe sunlight slipped through the edges of the hotel curtains, casting soft golden stripes across the carpet and the side of the bed. I sat on the armchair, legs pulled to my chest, wearing the same clothes from last night and feeling like my skin didn't belong to me. My eyes burned, not from tears, but from the kind of exhaustion that sits in the bones after something inside you has shattered. I didn't know what time it was, but the quiet hum of the city waking up made it clear that morning had arrived whether I wanted it to or not. Everything about this day felt too bright for the kind of heaviness I was carrying.Elijah was asleep on the floor, his back turned to me, a pillow wedged under his head and the spare blanket bunched around his legs. He hadn't said much after I told him I was still leaving. No