Chapter Fifty-NineMaya’s POVThe chamber was too quiet.It should have been a comfort, this private room where no one could see, no one could overhear, no one could measure the tremor in my hands or the unsteady rise of my chest. And yet the silence did not soothe. It pressed against me like a wall, thick and suffocating, as though the very air knew I had run out of places to hide.Ethan stood a little away from me, not so close that I could feel him, but not so far that I could forget him either. His presence carried across the space like heat, contained, controlled, but undeniable.I had not dared to sit. My body was strung too tightly for stillness. I kept my hands folded in front of me, knuckles white, the skin of my fingers marked by the bite of my own nails. If I looked at them, I would see what I had done written there, shame pressed into the lines of my flesh, sin smeared across my palms. So I didn’t look. I fixed my eyes on the stone floor instead, tracing the faint patterns
Last Updated : 2025-10-04 Read more