All Chapters of The Contracted Alliance; Accidental Marriage : Chapter 21

LILY'S POVOthers frequently confused my quietness for gentleness. Courtesy. Tenderness. However, I had discovered long ago that silence could serve as protection. Quiet might signify conflict. I remained by the hospital room window, observing the clouds move across the city skyline. Inside, the atmosphere seemed overly thick. Leena lay sleeping, her breaths shallow yet steady, enveloped in sterile sheets that had endured too much suffering. Devices hummed gently around her like a soothing song for the shattered. I was no longer just present as her friend. I was present because I had made a choice. And that side was not Zack. I had cared for him once. Not as Leena did, not as Kara asserted to. But sufficient to recognize the person he once was. And who was the man he had become? Toxin. Power-thirsty, merciless, fixated on domination. Something within him had warped long before the relationship with Kara, prior to the harshness toward Leena beginning. He was descending into chaos.