ra

hakable chill. I felt sick, but the physical ache was

e came home. The pain in my body was a distant ec

e screen. It was a picture of a

escaped my lungs. The departure date

ante's b

years, my only birthday wish had been for him. Now, my final gif

come and collect the last of my furniture, the pieces of a life I was methodica

pped in the doorway, his brow furrowed in confusion. He saw the change

rtment," he said, his voice cool and dist

in the air between us: I d

of me. "Can I come to your birthday par

hen, his eyes col

d and walked away, leaving me sta

ed, but the tea

face, with a decade of my adoration captured in charcoal and penc

my room and opened it to the last blank page. If he wanted me gone, I would gi

next to Sofia's, capturing the adoration

veway, much later than usual. Then, a

sheveled. A part of me, a deeply ingrained inst

softly, reachi

e wrapping around me like a shroud. I knew, with a certainty that chilled m

n smile spread across his face. "Sofia," he murmured, hi

ntle kiss. It was rough, demanding, fueled by

tely blank. The kiss I had dreamed of for a decade was

e that escaped his lips

e sick. This was a new level of humiliation, a fresh kind of h

say, my voice muff

nd wrong. He pushed me back against the wall, his body pressing int

inside m

e sound raw and torn from

ed, replaced by a flash of pure shock. He st

, he shoved me away from him

is face a mask of horror. He looked from me, crumpled on the ground, to his ow

pologize. He di

arble floor. He reached for me, not with force, but with a trembling des

is voice thick with something I