All Chapters of Married by Fate, Broken by Love: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Aliya's POVThe evening settled in slowly.Not all at once.Not dramatically.Just… gradually.The sunlight that had filled the apartment earlier softened into a warm amber glow, then faded into the cool blue of dusk. Shadows stretched longer across the floor, wrapping around furniture, settling into corners like they belonged there.Leo had fallen asleep on the couch.Not intentionally.He had been talking one moment about how his “garage” needed an upgrade and then his words slowed, blurred, until they stopped altogether.Now he lay curled slightly on his side, one arm tucked under his head, the other still loosely holding one of his toy cars.I stood a few feet away, watching him.There was something about this part of the day that always made me pause.Something quiet.Something fragile.The world outside didn’t stop, but inside this space, it always felt like it did.“Does he do that often?” Dylan asked from behind me.His voice was low, careful not to wake Leo.“Only when he’s p

Aliya's POVFor a long moment after the kiss, neither of us moved.The world didn’t rush back in immediately.It lingered at the edges, like it wasn’t quite ready to interrupt whatever it was.My forehead rested lightly against his, my fingers still curled into the fabric of his shirt, holding on without thinking about it.His hand was warm at my waist.It was steady and grounding.And my breathing. It hadn’t quite settled yet.I became aware of it slowly. The rise and fall of my chest.The quiet, uneven rhythm that refused to calm down.“This is… new,” I murmured.My voice came out softer than I expected, almost like I was speaking more to myself than to him.“I know,” Dylan replied.He didn’t move away.He didn’t loosen his hold, but he didn’t pull me closer either, he just stayed. Right there, in the present.Like he understood that this moment didn’t need to be rushed into anything else.I let out a slow breath, my hand relaxing slightly against his chest, though I didn’t pull it

Aliya's POVI didn’t realize when I fell asleep.One moment, I was listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing beside me.And the next, the world had gone quiet, still.Safe in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. When I woke up, it was the light that did it. Soft morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, stretching gently across the room in pale gold streaks. It touched the edge of the couch, climbed slowly over the floor, and rested against my arm like something warm and patient.For a moment, I didn’t move, didn’t open my eyes fully, because I was aware of something else first, warmth, solid, steady.Dylan.My head was resting against his shoulder, my body angled slightly toward him, like sometime during the night I had moved closer without even realizing it. And he hadn’t moved away, hadn’t shifted, hadn’t created space.He was still there, exactly where I had left him. My fingers were still loosely curled around his hand. That made my breath pause slightly, because that

Dylan's POVThe drive felt longer than it should have. It wasn’t because of traffic, not because of distance, because my mind wouldn’t settle. Every red light felt unnecessary, every slow-moving car in front of me felt like an interruption I didn’t have the patience for.I wasn’t used to that.Usually, I moved through things with precision, control, distance, but this, this wasn’t something I could manage like everything else, because it mattered, more than I was used to admitting.By the time I pulled up in front of her building, the sky had already dimmed into early evening, the last streaks of sunlight fading into a deep blue that stretched across the city.I sat in the car for a second, just a second, hands still on the wheel, breathing.Then I got out.When she opened the door, everything else fell away. It wasn’t dramatic, there was no rush. No immediate movement.She just stood there.Framed by the soft light of the apartment behind her, her hair loosely pulled back, a few stra

Aliya's POVFor a long moment after the kiss, I didn’t step away.And neither did he.My hand was still resting against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my palm, grounding me in a way I wasn’t prepared for.It was… calm.Not overwhelming.Not chaotic.Just steady.And that scared me more than anything else.Because calm meant real.And it really meant something I couldn’t walk away from easily.“You’re thinking again,” Dylan murmured.His voice was low, close enough that I felt it more than heard it.I let out a soft breath, my fingers loosening slightly against his shirt.“I can’t help it.”“You can.”“No,” I said quietly. “I can’t.”He didn’t argue.Didn’t interrupt.He just stayed there, his hand still warm at my waist, his presence steady in a way that made it harder to retreat into myself.“That’s how I’ve survived,” I continued after a moment. “Thinking ahead. Preparing for what could go wrong.”“And what’s going wrong right now?” he asked.I hesitat