Mated To Valentine
As if he had never mattered.
But he did matter.
To North. To me. To Mara. To Achilles. To everyone on the fucking estate.
Finn wasn’t just a gardener. He was a scared, half-starved teenager when I found him, barely able to stand on his own.
I took him in, gave him a place here, protected him. Or at least, I thought I had.
The council’s ultimatum looms over me.
"Three months."
My mother’s voice rings through my head, sharp and clipped as she reminds me that time is running out.