Lahat ng Kabanata ng Where fear ends: Kabanata 61 - Kabanata 70

Kim – POV Maja knows something’s wrong. She doesn’t say it right away—not when she brings over tea, or when she plops down on the couch beside me with that soft look in her eyes. But I can feel it brewing in her silence. That gentle concern. The kind only someone who loves you can carry. We sip in silence for a while. I pretend to be interested in the show playing on the TV, but I’m not fooling her. Not for a second. Then finally, in that quiet, loving tone of hers, she asks: “Kim… what’s going on with you two, honey?” My chest tightens. I stare into my cup and try to think of something to say, something vague and easy—but nothing comes. Just the truth, sitting like a stone in my throat. Maja continues, softly. “Why doesn’t Erik come here to his own apartment anymore? He used to stop by every night like he couldn’t stay away. Now… he’s never here. And when he is, he barely looks at you.” Her words aren’t cruel. They don’t accuse. They ache. I can’t lie. Not to her. So I whi

Erik – POV The bedroom is quiet now. Just the two of us. The soft hum of the city filters through the slightly opened window. Moonlight spills across the sheets, catching the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she lies on her side facing me, her fingers playing absently with mine. We’ve barely moved since she came back into my arms tonight. Since she tore through every lie I told myself and made me feel whole again just by saying she loved me. She’s here. And she’s not leaving. And that simple truth is both a relief and a kind of ache. "I missed this," she murmurs softly. "Just lying here with you. Listening to you talk." I smile faintly. "You used to fall asleep when I did." "Never. I pretended. I liked the sound of your voice. I still do." That makes my heart twist a little. I tighten my hand around hers, brushing my thumb over the back of it. "I was going to tell you about a case I worked on earlier this week," I say. "It’s been eating at me. Kid involved. The dad was

Erik Pov. She's glowing. Leaning back in the passenger seat, legs tucked under her, hair still damp from our shared shower, and lips pink from too many stolen kisses over breakfast. She's humming something under her breath, tapping her fingers on her thigh to the beat, and every so often she glances at me with that sweet, lovesick smile that ruins me. I rest my hand on the gearshift, but every part of me wants to reach over and rest it on her bare knee instead. I settle for looking at her. “You look smug,” she says without looking away from the road ahead. “Do I?” She nods. “You’ve had that look since the shower.” I smirk. “Hard not to, sweetheart. You were a little wild in there.” She lets out a shy giggle, tucking her face into her shoulder. “You bring it out in me.” I don’t say anything to that. Because what I want to say—you’ve brought out everything in me—feels too much, too heavy, for a drive to college. So I just smile, keep my eyes on the road, and enjoy the way she f

Erik – POV I’m halfway through typing a message to Kim when her name lights up on my phone screen. Come home. Two words. That’s all it says. But I stop breathing for a second. I reread it three times. My fingers go numb over the screen, the half-written message—Dinner with Maja tonight. She misses you.—forgotten completely. Come home. God. It hits me harder than I expect. The ache in my chest. The quiet, trembling desperation behind her words. She doesn’t even ask if I want to. She just needs me to. Because I’ve left her hanging in the space between love and uncertainty. Because I’ve been too afraid to hold her too tightly, terrified she might realize I’m not enough, or that the world has too much waiting for her to waste time on a man like me. But instead of protecting her heart, I’ve cracked it. And just because we made love last night—and again this morning in the shower with her breathless against the tile and my name on her lips—doesn’t mean everything I broke between

Kim Pov.“I’m throwing a party tomorrow night,” Luca says casually as we leave the library, our project files safely tucked under our arms. “Just a weekend thing. You should come.”I blink. “A party?”He grins. “You know. Music, drinks, people from campus. Nothing huge. Just enough to unwind.” He glances sideways at me. “You’d like it.”“I don’t really do parties,” I murmur, adjusting my bag strap. “Too many people, too much noise…” I trail off, suddenly embarrassed.He doesn’t laugh. Doesn’t tease me. “Then you definitely need to come,” he says gently. “Try something new. Just for a little while. I’ll make sure no one bothers you.”I hesitate. I can already hear the music thumping in my chest, see the unfamiliar faces, feel my breath tightening in a room full of strangers. But then again... I’ve never been to a real party. Not even in high school. The most “fun” I had was sneaking into the kitchen late at night to read in silence.And maybe that’s the problem.I’ve spent so much of m